After US, UN sounds alarm on Indian LS elections

AAP supporters during a protest against the arrest of Kejriwal. Pic/PTI

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said we very much "hope" that in India and any country that is having elections, people's "political and civil rights" are "protected" and everyone is able to vote in a "free and fair" atmosphere. Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric made these remarks on Thursday while he was responding to a question on 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 said at the daily press briefing Thursday. The response from the United Nations comes a day after the US also reacted to a similar question on Kejriwal's arrest and freezing of the Congress party's bank accounts.

On Wednesday, hours after India summoned a senior US diplomat to protest remarks on Kejriwal's arrest, Washington reiterated that it encourages fair, transparent, timely legal processes.

Kejriwal's wife launches blessings blitz

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita announced the ‘Kejriwal ko Aashirwad' campaign, urging people to support her husband, who is in the ED's custody in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case. In a digital media briefing, Sunita Kejriwal said her husband has challenged the "most corrupt and dictatorial forces" in the country and asked people to support him through their blessings and prayers. Issuing two WhatsApp numbers, 8297324624 and 9700297002, Sunita Kejriwal said people can send their blessings, prayers or any other messages to the AAP national convenor and she will communicate those to him. "Yesterday, Arvind presented his side in the court, and the entire country heard it. If you have not, please listen to it once. Whatever he said in front of the court requires a lot of courage. He is a true patriot," she said.

‘ED wants poll details from Kejri's phone'

The Enforcement Directorate is working as BJP's political weapon and it wants to get details of AAP's Lok Sabha election strategy by accessing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's phone, senior AAP leader Atishi alleged on Friday. Kejriwal, who is the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case and is in its custody till April 1. The insistence of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to look into Kejriwal's mobile phone, which is a few months old and did not exist when the policy was formed and implemented, proves that the agency is working as a "political weapon" of the BJP, Atishi alleged at a press conference here.

Security tightened for INDIA bloc protest in Delhi

Multiple layers of barricades have been set up and a large number of police personnel deployed on roads leading to the BJP headquarters here in view of the Opposition INDIA bloc's protest against the arrest of AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Besides police personnel, those of paramilitary forces have also been stationed at many places in Central Delhi, including on the DDU Marg and around the ITO area. Kejriwal, who is in the Enforcement Directorate's custody, was arrested by the agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.

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