External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday rejected recent comments made by a senior United Nations official on fairness of elections in India, saying that he does not need the multilateral organisation to tell that polls in the country should be “free and fair”, PTI reported.

On March 28, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said that the organisation hopes that the Lok Sabha elections in India are held in a free and fair atmosphere.

“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.

His comments were in response to a media query about the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

On Thursday, The foreign minister made the comments in response to a question about the statement made by Dujarric.

The United Nations official had made the remarks about fairness of elections in India in response to a “very loaded question” during a press briefing, Jaishankar said.

“I don’t need the United Nations to tell me our elections should be free and fair,” PTI quoted Jaishankar as saying. “I have the people of India. The people of India will ensure that elections are free and fair. So, don’t worry about it.”

Kejriwal, the chief of the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with the Delhi liquor excise policy case.

Dujarric’s remarks came a day after the United States reiterated that it encouraged “fair, transparent, and timely legal processes”.

Mathew Miller, the US State Department’s spokesperson, had said on March 27 that Washington was also aware of the Congress party’s allegations that the Income Tax Department had frozen some of its bank accounts in a manner that would make it challenging to campaign effectively.

Following this, the external affairs ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that Miller’s remarks were “unwarranted”. Jaiswal also said the Indian government was committed to protecting its democratic institution from any “form of undue external influences”.

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