US should not crane its neck into India's internal matter!

Freedom of speech is enshrined in the constitution of India, and the populace of the country often engages in no-hold-barred criticism on various issues affecting the country. Being the biggest democracy in the world, freedom of speech is paramount to the existence of the very ethos that shaped the country. India has an independent judiciary. Anyone can challenge any unconstitutional and illegal action by the government in court. Those arrested for any crime in India rely on the courts to prove their innocence. These procedures still remain a farfetched dream for many theocratic states and authoritarian regimes surrounding us.

In neighbouring Pakistan, ex-prime ministers are under the constant threat of going to jail if they lose power. The egregious dalliance of military rule with leading politicians has piled misery on the Islamic nation. It has thus turned into a normal for erstwhile prime ministers to leave the country and seek asylum in some other faraway land, where opulence is guaranteed. In China, it is frequent for officers occupying top positions to disappear on one fine morning, with even the media failing to do a report in fear of facing the wrath of the ruling communist regime.

The United States, the country with the decorative tag of ‘world police’ have in recent times practised caution while responding to issues concerning China, and is blasé to all such torturous human rights violations happening in the country. However, when it comes to India, the US decided to drop their silence and reacted to the arrest of Kejriwal in India, which is nothing but a gross interference in the internal affairs of another country.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal was arrested in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy case. Kejriwal, who is in jail, has approached the Delhi High Court for justice. The incident of the arrest and jailing of Kejriwal has been severely criticized by the opposition parties here. The opposition commented the arrest was a result of a political witch hunt, while the BJP said that no one is above the law and the arrest was made based on receiving documents and evidence of corruption. The validity of this has to be proved in the courts. These are all internal affairs that are happening entirely within India and don’t solicit any intervention from other countries. Leaving all diplomatic niceties to trash, the US needlessly jumped to comment on something that barely concerned them, which invariably caught the wrath of the external ministry in India.

The US State Department spokesperson responded yesterday that it is monitoring the news related to Kejriwal's arrest and hopes that Kejriwal will receive fair, transparent and timely legal proceedings. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs reacted strongly against this and summoned a senior diplomatic officer of the US Embassy to convey protest.

Diplomacy requires respect for each country's sovereignty and internal affairs. Earlier, India had protested to Germany, which responded to the Kejriwal arrest issue. America is not a country without human rights violations. Even at the nadir of time when the US got in the dock for the murder of George Floyd, India showed the diplomatic acuity to stay away from another country’s internal matter. The US should have returned the same gesture but alas, the ‘lordly’ demeanour might have whisked back into the western elite leadership to make an unsolicited comment about India’s sovereign issue.