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
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
