Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes that in India’s elections, "everyone’s rights are protected", his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said. 

“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”, he said on Mar 28 in response to a question from a Bangladeshi journalist at his daily briefing.

In making a general statement, Dujarric did not directly react to the journalist’s assertion that India was at a “crisis point” mentioning the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and what he said were the freezing of Congress Party funds.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) team arrested Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Mar 21 in the money laundering case related to Delhi liquor policy.

Moreover, on Feb 16, the Congress announced that its bank accounts had been frozen by the Income Tax Department in connection with the tax demand dispute.

Labelling the action as ‘an attack on democracy’, the party had said that the move comes at a critical juncture ahead of the impending Lok Sabha elections.

The tax dispute arose after the party‘s income for the 2018-19 assessment year was assessed at ₹1,99,15,26,560, then the nil income it declared, resulting in a tax demand of ₹1,05,17,29,635.

On Mar 28, the Delhi High Court turned down the pleas of Congress challenging the initiation of income tax re-assessment proceedings for the fiscal years 2017-18 to 2020-21.

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

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