4 August: A day after the Centre refused political clearance for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to travel to the Paris Olympics to support the Indian hockey team due to security concerns, it denied Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan’s request to go to a conference in Kentucky, USA.
Sandhwan received word on the internet that he would not be able to obtain political clearance. Sandhwan was scheduled to travel to Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday in order to attend the gathering of speakers from legislative bodies from August 4–7. He said, speakers from opposition-ruled Karnataka, Kerala, and Himachal Pradesh had also been refused permission, but their Meghalayan counterparts had received permission.
Retaliating against the Center, Sandhwan remarked, “I have been told that I have applied late for the permission, but it seems that the Center has some political agenda as it is denying permission to representatives of opposition-ruled states.”
He added that 3,000 legislators from all around the world are coming to the US for this conference. “They (the central administration) want India to become a “vishwaguru,” but they won’t let opposition leaders represent the nation abroad. They had previously refused permission to Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, and current chief minister Bhagwant Mann, according to Sandhawan.
Mann, who travels with a diplomatic passport, was denied permission by the Center to travel to Paris to attend the Indian hockey team’s quarterfinal match on August 4. The Center claimed that because the chief minister is a Z-Plus security protectee, it was not feasible to quickly arrange for his level of security.
The decision was communicated to the chief minister’s office on Friday evening, according to a Punjab government official.
Senior political figures must obtain political clearance from the ministry of external affairs before they can travel overseas.
Mann retaliated against the Center on Saturday for refusing him permission. He added that , Prime Minister Narendra Modi only wants himself to attend the Olympics in Paris
Mann spoke with Indian hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh over the phone on Saturday after being denied permission, congratulating him on his win over Australia. He expressed the nation’s high expectations from the Indian squad and wished them luck.
