On Wednesday, March 27, 2024, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena of the United States appeared at South Block in New Delhi in response to a summons from the Ministry of External Affairs.
A US State Department official’s comments were met with disapproval by officials during the discussion, which lasted more than thirty minutes in the Ministry of External Affairs office in South Block. India sent a strong protest letter to Washington in response to comments made about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s incarceration.
The United States has pushed for a “just, open, and prompt legal procedure for Chief Minister Kejriwal. “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” news agency Reuters quoted a US State Department spokesperson as saying.
The MEA later in a statement said, “We take strong objection to the remarks of the Spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India”.
“In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. This responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,” the statement said.
India’s legal processes are based on “an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes,” the MEA said in the statement while underlining that “casting aspersions on that is unwarranted”.
Earlier Event
This diplomatic meeting followed after India had summoned the German deputy head of mission on 23 March and had protested the same statements made about Kejriwal’s detention by the German Foreign Ministry. These remarks were seen by India as compromising the independence of the courts and interfering with its legal procedures.
On March 23, External Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal tweeted, “We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary. India is a vibrant and robust democracy with rule of law.”
“As in all legal cases in the country, and elsewhere in the democratic world, law will take its own course in the instant matter. Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted,” he added
The Enforcement Directorate detained Arvind Kejriwal in relation to a money laundering case pertaining to the excise policy “scam,” which involved allegedly corrupt and money laundering activities during the formulation and execution of the excise policy for the Delhi government for 2021–2022, which was later revoked.
