NEW DELHI: Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy on Monday accused the Centre of “insulting” 4 crore people of the state by declining permission for his visit to the United States.Reddy claimed that the move showed the “Centre’s discrimination” against Telangana and said that the issue would be raised in Parliament.“The ministry of external affairs examined my proposal and declined clearance from the political angle. I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi: if there was nothing political about my foreign tour, why was permission granted for England but denied for the US?”He also questioned why Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel was allowed to visit the US and Canada from August 17 to 24 as part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2047 initiative to attract investments, while his proposed US visit under Telangana Rising 2047 was rejected.“Not just America but any country in the world. If they are going to come and invest in my state, whatever regulations are made by the government of India, we want to welcome everyone, we want to protect their investment, we will make sure to get profit from Telangana, so this is very simple. This is the only political reason Narendra Modi has refused to let me travel to the US to promote Telangana,” Reddy added.
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Reddy’s remarks came days after the ministry of external affairs denied him permission to visit the United States, saying that the programme submitted for the trip was not considered appropriate to the office he holds and the purpose of the visit.MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in a briefing, said that visits by chief ministers and other dignitaries are assessed by the ministry before political clearance is granted.“Let me say that the visit of chief ministers, as indeed of other dignitaries, are assessed by the ministry of external affairs in order to accord political clearance,” Jaiswal said.“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 United States, and therefore the clearance was denied,” he said.