No permission to CM as summit was a mayor-level event: Govt

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 9

Defending its decision to withhold permission to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to attend a climate summit in Denmark, the government today said, the event was meant for “mayor-level” participants. 

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, while responding to a query during the briefing on Cabinet decisions, said, “It was a mayor-level conference” and a West Bengal minister was going to attend it.

Sources in the government later rejected suggestions that opposition parties were being targeted, while claiming that a separate protocol is followed for Chief Ministers. 

Sources in the Delhi Government had said on Tuesday that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was scheduled to leave for the C-40 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, at 2 pm on Tuesday, but could not take the flight as the Ministry of External Affairs denied him the political clearance to attend the meeting. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was to lead an eight-member delegation to the summit, to be held from October 9-12. 

The Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh termed termed the Centre's decision to withhold the clearance "unfortunate", saying it would affect India's image. He also wondered why the Centre was "so much" angry with the AAP government.