India on Thursday rejected the latest remarks by the United States on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and the freezing of the bank accounts of Congress, saying this country is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions and is committed to protecting them from any form of undue external influences.
”Mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of international relations, and states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a media briefing.
He was asked for his reaction to US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller’s remarks yesterday that Washington encourages ”fair, transparent and timely legal processes” in both the cases of Kejriwal and freezing of bank accounts of the grand old party.
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”The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable. In India, legal processes are driven only by the Rule of Law. Anyone who has a similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact. India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are committed to protecting them from any form of undue external influences,” the Indian spokesperson said.
This came a day after India summoned a senior US embassy official to the foreign office and lodged a protest over the comments made by the State Department on Kejriwal’s arrest in the now scrapped Delhi excise policy case.
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