The Ministry of External Affairs Thursday said it had received a request last week for political clearance for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Singapore but it is given to understand that the host Government has shared certain updates and changes in its invitation with the Delhi Government. Asked about Delhi chief minister's political clearance request, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "As we conveyed last week, we received an entry on our political clearance portal on July 21."
"Given to understand that the host government Singapore has shared certain updates and changes to its invitation with the Delhi Government. I would request you to check with the Delhi Government on what is the status of that," he said.
Kejriwal had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking permission to attend the summit. Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has rejected the AAP government's request for Kejriwal's travel to Singapore, saying his attendance at the mayors' conference will set a "bad precedent".
Last month, High Commissioner of Singapore, Simon Wong, invited Kejriwal for the World Cities Summit.
Critising the central government, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that only the central gvernment can be held responsible for CM Arvind Kejriwal not being able to attend the World Cities Summit in Singapore and the subsequent humiliation the country has had to face.
“The file regarding clearance for Chief Minister's visit was sent to the LG on June 7 itself. The LG sat on the file for one and a half months and returned the file on July 21. By then not only had there been a lot of delay, but the deadline till July 20 to complete the travel formalities had also passed,” AAP said.
“It is clear from this that the intention of the Central Government was to prevent the CM from talking about the world-class work done in Delhi including the transformations in education and health at an international arena. The goal of the Central Government may have been accomplished, but the Centre is also responsible for the way the country has faced disgrace amongst the global community,” AAP further said.