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After Arvind Kejriwal cries foul, Centre explains why it denied nod to attend Denmark…

The Centre on Wednesday justified its decision to deny permission to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to attend a climate summit in Denmark, saying it “was not commensurate with the level of participation from other countries.”

Kejriwal was to leave on Tuesday for the C-40 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, but could not do so after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denied permission.

“A considered decision on political clearance by the Ministry of External Affairs is based on multiple inputs and takes into account the nature of the event, the level of participation by other countries, type of invitation extended, etc. In the instant case, the participation of Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi as a Speaker at a panel discussion was not commensurate with the level of participation from other countries. The Chief Minister of one of the largest and populous cities in the world, which also is the capital of India, was therefore advised not to attend the event,” official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Kejriwal was scheduled to speak on his government’s work towards lowering pollution, including the car rationing scheme.

The Centre’s defence came after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused it of showing hostility and not giving political clearance to Kejriwal and others for attending the conference.

“This is unfortunate and beyond my understanding that why the Narendra Modi Ji’s government is working with such hostility towards us. He (Kejriwal) was not going on vacation but to hold discussions with the mayors of 100 cities of Asia and present a better picture of our country on efforts to abate pollution,” the party’s leader Sanjay Singh had told ANI on Tuesday.

“How many official visits of Chief Ministers have been cancelled till date? We applied a month ago but could not get the clearance,” he had said.

First Published:
Oct 09, 2019 22:17 IST

Source: HindustanTimes