Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Punjab Cabinet Minister Aman Arora Friday said the Centre has denied him political clearance for a knowledge-sharing tour of Europe, and claimed that the move showed that the BJP-led government was politically insecure of Aam Aadmi Party’s leadership and was thus resorting to such “cheap tactics”. Arora, the state Renewable and New Energy Resources Minister, was to proceed on the week-long Europe visit from Saturday.
The development comes amid an ongoing political slugfest between the AAP and the BJP, with the ruling party in Punjab accusing the saffron party of trying to topple its government by allegedly trying to poach its MLAs. This also comes days after opposition in Punjab alleged that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was deplaned at Frankfurt airport after reached there to board a flight to Delhi in an inebriated condition.
“First Arvind Kejriwal ji denied permission to visit Singapore, now it is Punjab. Sadly, the Union government has denied me permission to visit Germany, Netherlands and Belgium on a knowledge-sharing study tour on green hydrogen being sponsored by the Indo-German Energy Forum to tackle stubble burning and pollution,” Arora said in a tweet.
Talking to the Indian Express, Arora said it was Centre that had forwarded to the state the details of the programme. The state government had forwarded two names — Arora and the director of new and renewable energy department. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy later cleared the names for a 13-member delegation, including Arora, on September 14, but the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has now not issued political clearance to the minister.
“In the final list, my name is missing,” Arora said, adding “we will certainly lodge a protest” with the Centre. “This is an attack on the federal structure of the nation,” he charged.
A senior AAP leader, requesting not to be named, said: “We are not in any confrontation with Germany. Why should we be denied permission?”.
The leader said that the communication sent by the Centre to Punjab did not mention any reason for denial of permission. “This is now becoming a confrontation between Centre and Punjab just because AAP is ruling the state and is not cowed down by the BJP,” the leader added.
Arora, meanwhile, said that the BJP was so politically insecure of the AAP leadership “that it resorted to cheap tactics like denying political clearance”.
Arora said from Punjab he was to participate in the event, which was being sponsored by the Indo-German Forum and neither the Centre nor the state government had to bear any expenses for it.
“While the Centre gave clearance to other states and other delegates, only I have been denied the permission. This knowledge-sharing tour from September 24 to October 2 was of much importance for planning and developing new and renewable energy resources in the state to meet future requirements besides ensuring a green and clean environment,” said Arora.
Terming “green hydrogen” as the “future”, Arora said “it would have sorted all our problems” including that of stubble and pollution. “I want to ask the MEA that what was I going to do there? I was not going there to go to malls,” he added.
Arora said that earlier Centre had denied permission to AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal permission to visit Singapore to represent India at the World Cities Summit.
The Union government’s “such unnecessary interference will be a threat to the federal structure of the nation”, Arora said, claiming the success of people-friendly policies of AAP has presented a strong challenge to the “BJP’s model of hate and lies”.
He said that the BJP has forgotten the glorious traditions of Indian democracy. He reminded the BJP that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Leader of Opposition when the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had chosen the BJP leader to lead a delegation to the UN.
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
