India News | CM Kejriwal Being Unable to Visit Singapore Humiliation to Country, City: AAP Govt

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) The Delhi government Thursday blamed the Centre for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being unable to visit Singapore for the World Cities Summit, saying this has brought humiliation to the country and the city.

The file for the Centre's permission for the chief minister's visit was sent to the LG on June 7, which was returned on July 21.

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"Not only there was too much delay by then but the last date of July 20 for completing the travel formalities had also passed," the Delhi government said in a statement.

It also claimed the Centre's intention was to stop the chief minister from speaking at an international forum "about world class works done in Delhi in health, education and other fields".

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"Only the Central government 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 statement said.

"It is clear from this that the intention of the Central government was to prevent the Chief Minister from talking about the world-class work done in Delhi," it said.

"The goal of the Central government may have been accomplished, but it is also responsible for the way the country has faced disgrace amongst the global community," claimed the statement.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of External Affairs said it had received a request last week for political clearance for Delhi Chief Minister'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 the 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."

The Delhi government had directly applied to the MEA for clearance to Kejriwal's visit the day LG office returned the file commenting it was not befitting of a chief minister to attend a mayors' conference.

Kejriwal had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking permission to attend the summit.

Last month, High Commissioner of Singapore, Simon Wong, had invited Kejriwal for the World Cities Summit.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)