The Delhi government on Friday blamed the Centre for the cancellation of his Singapore visit.
After days of tug-of-war between the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Centre over clearance for his Singapore visit, the AAP’s national convenor will finally not be going.
The Delhi government has issued a formal statement blaming the central government for the incident.
Kejriwal was invited to participate in the World Cities Summit to be held in Singapore in the first week of August.
The formal statement said that the formalities for the Singapore visit were to be completed by July 20, while the Lieutenant Governor returned the file on July 21.
AAP has claimed that since it took a long time to get the necessary permission from LG and the Center, no time was left to complete the remaining formalities.
DELHI GOVT ACCUSES CENTRE
In a statement, the Delhi government blamed the Centre for the delay. “If Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not able to attend the World City Summit to be held in Singapore and because of this, the country along with Delhi has to be humiliated, then only the central government is responsible for it,” the statement read.
The statement further said, “The file regarding permission for the visit of the Chief Minister was sent to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on June 7 itself. The LG sat silent for about 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.
It is clear from this that the intention of the central government was to prevent the Chief Minister from telling about the world-class work done in Delhi in the international arena apart from education and health,” the statement said, adding that ‘the intention of the central government may have been fulfilled, but it is also responsible for the way the country has to be looked down upon among the global community.’
CENTRE HITS BACK
As per central government sources, the World Cities Summit invitation to Arvind Kejriwal was withdrawn by Singapore. The Centre claimed that an email revealed that the invitation was cancelled.
The centre said that Singapore cancelled Kejriwal’s invite due to late application. Kejriwal missed the deadline for accepting the invitation to Singapore on July 20, 2022, resulting in the automatic cancellation of his invitation, government sources said.
The centre further alleged that Kejriwal wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs for the approval of his visit on July 21, a day after the Singapore deadline expired. The Centre alleged that Kejriwal’s actions were just a stunt.
