No flying out! When Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee were denied permission for foreign visits
No flying out! When Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee were denied permission for foreign visits
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently took to social media to register his anger over being denied permission for a visit to Singapore.
He has been invited to attend the World Cities Summit between 31 July and 3 August to be held in the city-state to present the Delhi model of governance.
“I am not a criminal, I am the elected Chief Minister and I am a free citizen of the country. Why am I being stopped? The Government of Singapore has specially called me to present the Delhi model,” Kejriwal said on Monday, after voting in the presidential polls.
He alleged that there were political reasons behind the delay to grant him a go-ahead for the summit.
I am an elected MLA. I don't understand why am I being stopped (from going to World Cities Summit). Singapore govt has called me to tell them about Delhi model- growth of services in health&schools. This will promote the country on an international level: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/vS56VgG7ow
— ANI (@ANI) July 18, 2022
The Delhi CM reportedly wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the matter and has been awaiting permission for more than a month now.
What was the matter involving Arvind Kejriwal?
Foreign visits by chief ministers and state-level ministers need to be approved by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The process begins with the Cabinet Secretariat, which has to be informed about the visit.
As per news agency PTI, sources have claimed that Delhi LG VK Saxena has not approved the file of Kejriwal's visit to Singapore. Kejriwal was invited to the World Cities Summit 2022, to be held in Singapore, by the High Commissioner of that country, Simon Wong, at a meeting on 1 June. The chief minister had said he looked forward to attending the event and would send a formal acceptance.
The chief minister said he usually does not go on foreign visits but intended to go to the Singapore summit as it concerned the progress of the country.
"It is wrong to hold the permission for attending the event. It is an opportunity to present the Delhi Model of governance on the World stage. It is against the national interest to stop a CM from visiting such a huge stage," read the letter to Modi. He urged the PM to give permission so that he can represent the country.
Who gives the political clearance?
The PMO sends the application to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The ministry, which looks into foreign affairs, sends the application to the Indian mission in the country that the chief minister plans to visit.
A thorough investigation is carried out and the hosts of the dignitary are scrutinised. The nature of the event, participation of other nations, and India’s ties with the host country are all taken into consideration. A report is made based on the findings and sent back to the MEA.
The MEA can add an unfavourable remark if they suspect the credentials or the intent of the invite.
A copy of the application is also sent to the department of economic affairs, which takes a look at the application only if it has got a go-head from the MEA. A suitable protocol requirement by the host country is also needed.
Since 2016, e-political clearance applications can be made on the portal epolclearance.gov.in, according to a report in The Indian Express.
The MEA forwards the recommendation and the report to the PMO which takes the final call.
Have other leaders been denied permission to travel abroad?
The instances of being denied permission to travel abroad is not as rare as it may seem.
In October 2019, Kejriwal did not receive approval to attend a climate conference in Demark’s Copenhagen, which he later attended virtually. He was not given a political clearance by the MEA. Then Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, “It (the summit) was a mayor-level conference and a West Bengal minister is going to attend it.”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was denied permission to travel abroad at least twice.
Banerjee was denied permission for a trip to Rome in September 2021 to attend the World Peace Conference. The MEA had said that “the event is not commensurate in status for participation by a chief minister of a state”.
Later the same year, she was again refused permission to travel to Nepal by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in December. She was invited to the convention by the Nepali Congress.
As per an India Today report, the TMC supreme has also alleged that in 2018 the Centre refused to let her travel to Chicago to attend the World Hindu Conference.
The Centre, however, denied the accusations, claiming that it had never been approached.
BJP leader Arjun Munda, then-Jharkhand Chief Minister, along with several senior state government officials were scheduled to travel to Bangkok in June 2011 for an Indian Engineering Exhibition. However, the group of leaders was denied permission by the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.
In 2017, then Kerala Tourism Minister K Surendran was denied permission by the MEA to visit China for a tourism conference. It was found that the host was not providing suitable protocol to the minister from an important Indian state, reports The Hindu.
According to India Today, in October 2018, a planned trip by Kerala ministers was denied permission. The group of ministers was planning to travel to 17 nations to raise money from expats for flood relief. However, the Centre authorised CM Pinarayi Vijayan's trip abroad.
During the UPA rule, Tarun Gogoi, who was then the Assam chief minister, was not allowed to visit the United States and Israel.
With inputs from agencies
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