India summons US diplomat over US State Department remarks on Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest I VIDEO

New Delhi: In a major development, India on Wednesday summoned a senior US diplomat over recent US State Department remarks on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. According to reports, the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi summoned the US’ Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Berbena. The meeting lasted for approximately 40 minutes.

The summon came two days after a State Department spokesperson said that the US is closely following reports of the arrest of Indian opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal and encourages a fair legal process. “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” the US official had said in a response to a query by news agency Reuters. Notably, Kejriwal was arrested by a financial crime-fighting agency on Thursday on corruption charges.

Earlier last week, New Delhi summoned a German envoy as a mark of protest against his government’s remarks about the arrest of the Delhi CM. “We assume and expect that the standards relating to the independence of the judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s foreign office had said in a press conference.

Later, New Delhi summoned the German embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, “and conveyed India’s strong protest,” at the remarks.

It is worth mentioning India underscores the arrest of the Delhi Chief Minister is solely an “internal matter” of India and therefore, “no foreign country should lecture New Delhi over what to do and what not to”.

This is a breaking story. More details will be added.