New Delhi, Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday slammed the BJP-led NDA government for not granting permission to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to attend the C-40 Climate Summit at Copenhagen, saying it was “disrespectful” to the people of the city.
The AAP’s reaction came after Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that the permission was not given as the summit was only for “mayor-level” participants.
The Delhi government on Wednesday received the final communication about not granting permission for the Chief Minister’s visit from the Centre.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP and Delhi Vidhan Sabha election in-charge Sanjay Singh said that even former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had attended the meet while in office.
“It is a very lame excuse given by the Centre that the summit was for mayors and Kejriwal is a CM.”
He said that in the past few years due to the relentless work of the Delhi government, the pollution of the city has come down by 25 per cent.
“Delhi CM was going to this summit to talk about how Delhi worked to achieve such transformation through various steps. But the Centre did not grant permission to his visit and this is a disrespect to the people of Delhi,” Singh said.
Singh also gave examples of similar incidents with Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain who were both denied permission to go to abroad to talk about the achievements of the Delhi government.
“This is not the first time the Centre has done this, earlier the same thing happened with Sisodia and Jain. The model of Delhi’s education revolution is being discussed across the world but Sisodia was not granted permission to present that model to the world. The same thing happened with Jain when he was supposed to talk about Mohallah Clinic project – one of the most discussed health models all over the world,” said Singh.
“Why the BJP is scared of the work done by the Kejriwal government. In the last few years, the Delhi government has done a remarkable job by improving the quality of education and health. Now, every government school has good infrastructure, swimming pool, happiness class, and world-class hockey field for the students but the Centre does not want us to tell the world about these achievements. This way the BJP is not allowing the Delhi government to hold the flag of India high in front of the world,” Singh added.
He said the Delhi government had asked for permission over a month prior.
“The UD minister of West Bengal applied for the same one week before and got permission but CM Kejriwal did not get permission,” he said.
Singh also gave examples of various meetings of the Prime Minister which took place abroad.
“When our Prime Minister goes abroad he also meets people from various field and it’s natural because that is how meetings should take place. The PM doesn’t meet only the heads of the states but he meets everyone and that is the way it happens, then why should not the same happen with the AAP government?” he asked.
Singh also said that the party will take this issue to the people of Delhi while campaigning for the next Assembly election.
“The election is coming and the AAP will take this issue of not granting us permission to present our good work to the world to the people of Delhi. We will show the ill-motive and mindset of the BJP to the people,” said Singh.
