By Sushil Kutty
Acting US Deputy Ambassador Gloria Berbena was at the receiving end of New Delhi’s ire after the US State Department spoke its mind on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Both the US State Department and Gloria Berbena gave Modi’s millions a chance to thump their “56” chests” as India’s Ministry of External Affairs expressed its “strong displeasure” at the United States’ affront to interfere in India’s internal affairs. But, if Kejriwal is granted bail by the Delhi High Court, will it be termed “foreign interference in India’s internal affairs”?
The MEA told the US State Department to mind its business and respect India’s sovereignty and that India’s legal process has its sanctity. Modi bots clutched at this straw. The Modi government’s “strong objection” buttresses his claim to his “vishwaguru image” though Germany, earlier last week, and the United States, this week, has blunted that image.
But the INDI-Alliance, if not the AAP, would rather have foreign governments stop poking their nose into India’s affairs, especially in matters that involve India’s opposition parties, on the eve of India’s general elections. The BJP gets an opportunity to paint the opposition parties into a corner using phrases like “foreign interference” and “internal affairs”. AAP might draw succour from Germany and the United States speaking for its Chief Minister, but the BJP spins this to its advantage.
The remarks of the US State Department about India’s judiciary couldn’t have come at a more crucial time and it does not help Kejriwal in any manner. On the contrary, India’s “independent judiciary” will become all the more independent and set an even more healthy precedent.
The German Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi was summoned on March 23 and the Acting US Deputy Ambassador on March 27. Both had nothing positive to convey to their bosses other than India’s strong protests, which vast sections of common Indians love to hear, like “India is a vibrant and robust democracy with the rule of law” and “who are the Germans to take note of India’s affairs?”
That said, the Biden government cautioning the Modi government against going alpha on Arvind Kejriwal and the German Foreign Office asking the Modi government to behave nice with Kejriwal clearly shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot rest on his international laurels, specifically those garnered in India’s immediate neighbourhood, alone. The West is too democratic for the current state of the world’s largest democracy a-k-a the “Mother of Democracy”.
And, contrary to belief, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not all that trusted in foreign climes; and by world leaders with whom Modi appears to be on first-name basis. Now, it dawns, that “fair” and “impartial” and “transparent” don’t seem to apply to the Hindu nationalist BJP government, which is why western democracies love to brazenly and blatantly interfere in India’s vulnerable “internal affairs”.
So, Germany in its mild manner insisted that “like any other Indian citizen facing charges, Kejriwal also deserved a fair and impartial trial.” Mind you, this when Kejriwal hadn’t complained, when Kejriwal’s wife Sunitha Kejriwal hadn’t raised Cain and neither did his son nor his daughter. Both Germany and the United States blatantly interfered and this is what India is getting after a decade of Modi rule. Modi can only turn to Netanyahu for camaraderie and commiseration. Maybe Russian President Vladimir Putin, too?
“We assume and expect that standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” a German government spokesperson said. India called it “blatant interference”. The German envoy was summoned and told to stop meddling in India’s “internal matters”, especially in “our judicial process”. Now, the USA has interfered with its “Biased and unwarranted assumptions.”
Germany got a prompt repartee, and the US State Department, too. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s masterly External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has master-cards up his sleeve. Jaishankar is no spring-chicken in handling big powers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wouldn’t cow down at this juncture when Indians are making up their minds on who to cast their precious votes for. The tussle between Modi’s BJP and Kejriwal’s AAP is being keenly watched, both nationally and internationally.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Kejriwal and there were dramatic scenes outside his residence and dramatic circumstances inside the Delhi court where Kejriwal was presented and remanded in ED custody for six days. Now, much to the Modi government’s outrage, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is ruling Delhi from within an Enforcement Directorate lock-up and AAP ministers are taking their orders from the Chief Minister and loving it.
It is like Che Gueverra had descended on Delhi and let loose guerilla warfare. Shots are being fired and the entrenched establishment doesn’t know where the shots are coming from. If one day, it’s about water, the next day, it’s got to do with “mohalla clinics”. The citizens of Delhi are getting the full Kejriwal-treatment, which they are used to and which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also used to even if he has a load of complaints.
The BJP and the Modi government don’t like it one bit. Calls for the dismissal of the AAP government and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are being made by the hour. A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court. And Kejriwal’s appeal for release on bail was heard in the High Court Wednesday. If the high court grants Kejriwal bail, the BJP might feel the impact in the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi. (IPA Service)
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