 "'Don't need the UN to tell...': Jaishankar on UN official's free and fair election remark")
Days after Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that the global body hopes everyone in India is able to vote in a free and fair atmosphere, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday dismissed his remarks saying that India doesn’t need the UN to tell that our elections should be free and fair as people here will anyway ensure that.
Responding to a query regarding Dujarric’s remark, Jaishankar said, “I don’t need the UN to tell me that our elections should be free and fair. I have the people of India. They will ensure that the elections are free and fair. So, don’t worry about it,” the minister said.
Jaishankar, who was in Thiruvananthapuram to campaign for his ministerial colleague and BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar in the Lok Sabha polls, also said that the UN official made the comment in response to a “very loaded question” during a press briefing at the UN.
Last week, Dujarric was asked about the “political unrest” in India ahead of the upcoming national elections in the wake of the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the freezing of the opposition Congress Party’s bank accounts.
“What we very much hope that in India, as in any country that is having elections, that everyone’s rights are protected, including political and civil rights, and everyone is able to vote in an atmosphere that is free and fair,” Dujarric had said.
The United States and Germany too, have spoken about Kejriwal’s arrest, prompting New Delhi to summon American and German diplomats. The Delhi CM was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 for his alleged role as the ‘kingpin’ in the national capital’s excise policy scam. Kejriwal is the first person in India to be arrested as an incumbent chief minister.
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