Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy was denied political clearance for a planned visit to the US because the purpose and programme of the trip did not conform with established norms, the external affairs ministry said on Friday.
Reddy, whose Congress party is in opposition at the Centre, left for a 10-day visit to the UK and the US this week. He is now expected to return home on August 23 after completing the UK leg of the visit, for which political clearance was granted. The Chief Minister’s Office in Hyderabad said he was denied permission to go to the US because of a “political angle”.
When external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked about the matter at a regular media briefing, he replied: “The visit of chief ministers, as indeed of other dignitaries, is assessed by the ministry of external affairs in order to accord political clearance.
“The programme proposed in such cases should be appropriate to the office held and the purpose of the visit. In this particular case, that was not so in respect of the US and therefore, the clearance was denied, not given.”
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{{/usCountry}}Jaiswal pointed out, without going into details, that political clearance was given for Reddy’s visit to the UK.
What was Reddy's trip about
Reddy was accompanied by the “TelanganaRising” delegation for his visit, and he planned to travel to Boston and New York. He instructed state government officials to continue the US trip to sign agreements with leading educational institutions such as Harvard and MIT.
He alleged during his tour of the UK that there was a “conspiracy” by the Central government and noted that issues such as youth development should be above politics. He pointed out that the only purpose of his visit was to bring the world’s best institutions to Telangana as part of the country’s New Education Policy and said: “They would have been an answer to our youth’s aspirations to get education, skills and training from the best Ivy Leagues and top global institutions.”
Reddy added, “I have always believed we should all think beyond politics and elections when it comes to nation building and the future of the youth.”
In the past, the Central government has denied political clearance for foreign visits by chief ministers such as Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal.