MUMBAI/WASHINGTON: India strongly objected on Wednesday to US remarks about its “internal affairs” after the arrest of Delhi’s chief minister, a government rival, and the freezing of opposition Congress party bank accounts ahead of an election.
Arvind Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governs the national capital territory and the northern state of Punjab, was arrested last week by the federal financial crime-fighting agency on corruption charges, weeks before Indians head to the polls from April 19.
AAP, all of whose main leaders are now imprisoned in connection with the case, says Kejriwal has been “falsely arrested” in a “fabricated case.”
It has an electoral alliance with the Congress party and others who aim to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
On Wednesday, India summoned the acting US deputy chief of mission in New Delhi following a State Department comment on Monday that it was closely following reports of Kejriwal’s arrest and that it encouraged a fair legal process.
“India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.
“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,” it said.
India and the US enjoy close ties and Washington has increasingly come to see New Delhi as an important partner in its effort to push back against China’s growing power worldwide.
When asked about the summoning of the diplomat, a US State Department spokesperson said he would not discuss private conversations but reiterated that Washington encouraged a “fair, transparent and timely” legal process for Kejriwal and for the Congress party.
The Congress party said last week its bank accounts had been frozen over an income tax case. It called the action politically motivated.
The federal government and Modi’s party deny political interference.
Kejriwal’s arrest after the announcement of elections has angered the opposition alliance challenging Modi and drawn international attention.
The US comments on Kejriwal followed those by Germany, which said Berlin assumes and expects that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.
In response, New Delhi summoned a German envoy to protest against the remarks.
India objects to US remarks on opposition figure Kejriwal’s arrest
https://arab.news/vjxr8
India objects to US remarks on opposition figure Kejriwal’s arrest
- Kejriwal’s arrest after the announcement of elections has angered the opposition alliance challenging Modi and drawn international attention
Military intervention in Iran ‘not the preferred option’: French minister
- The president’s son blamed foreign interference for the protests’ violent turn, but said “the security and law enforcement forces may have made mistakes that no one intends to defend and that must be addressed”
PARIS: Military intervention in Iran, where authorities launched a deadly crackdown on protesters that killed thousands, is not France’s preferred option, its armed forces minister said on Sunday.
“I think we must support the Iranian people in any way we can,” Alice Rufo said on the political broadcast “Le Grand Jury.”
But “a military intervention is not the preferred option” for France, she said, adding it was “up to the Iranian people to rid themselves of this regime.”
Rufo lamented how hard it was to “document the crimes the Iranian regime has carried out against its population” due to an internet shutdown.
“The fate of the Iranian people belongs to Iranians, and it is not for us to choose their leaders,” said Rufo.
The son of Iran’s president, who is also a government adviser, has called for internet connectivity to be restored, warning that the more than two-week blackout there would exacerbate anti-government sentiment.
Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected president in 2024, said, “Keeping the internet shut will create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government.”
“This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied will be added to the list of the dissatisfied,” he wrote in a Telegram post that was later picked up by the IRNA news agency.
Such a risk, he said, was greater than that of a return to protests if connectivity were restored.
The younger Pezeshkian, a media adviser to the presidency, said he did not know when internet access would be restored.
He pointed to concerns about the “release of videos and images related to last week’s ‘protests that turned violent’” as a reason the internet remained cut off, but criticized the logic.
Quoting a Persian proverb, he posted “‘He whose account is clean has nothing to fear from scrutiny.’”
The president’s son blamed foreign interference for the protests’ violent turn, but said “the security and law enforcement forces may have made mistakes that no one intends to defend and that must
be addressed.”
He went on to say that “the release of films is something we will have to face sooner or later. Shutting down the internet won’t solve anything; it will just postpone the issue.”
