Rahul Gandhi Skips Foreign Ministry’s Permission Before UK Trip, Congress Says, “MPs don’t Need Political Clearance”
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 26th May. The Congress party on Wednesday refused media reports claiming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi required “political clearance” to visit London, saying MPs do not need any such clearance from the government, unless they are part of an official delegation.
Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet, “MPs don’t need political clearance from PM or Govt, unless they are part of Official Delegation. Please don’t blindly follow the PMO WhatsApp suggestions sent to TV channels,”
Surjewala also tagged a media report which quoted the government sources to say Rahul Gandhi did not take political clearance from the government to visit the UK.
Another media report also mentioned the government sources and said that all MPs need to apprise the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) three weeks before any foreign trip and seek political clearance, adding that they need to post details on the foreign ministry website.
Responding to reports, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera tweeted that “Rahul Gandhi is not a journalist who needs clearance from PMO to do his journalism”.
The Congress party’s responses to the media reports came after Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in London caused a ruckus in India with the Bharatiya Janata Party asking him whether he supported the UK opposition leader’s “anti-India” views.
The Congress party safeguarded Rahul Gandhi’s meeting and shared pictures of Corbyn with Narendra Modi to ask whether the Prime Minister too favored the “anti-India” views of the UK Labour leader and MP.
Also, during his London visit, Rahul Gandhi, while addressing an event on ‘India at 75’ at Cambridge University on Monday evening, charged that there is a “systematic attack” on the institutions that allow India to speak and as the conversation is being stamped out, the “deep state” is entering those spaces and redefining the way that conversation is happening in the country.
At one more ‘Ideas for India’ event in London, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday had said the “deep state” in India is “chewing” the Indian state much like in Pakistan, as he launched a frontal attack on the Modi government.
The BJP had lashed out at Rahul Gandhi calling him a “part-time, immature, unsuccessful leader” who deceived the country with his comments made on foreign soil.
Sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that MPs are not required to seek permission from it while visiting abroad in a personal capacity though there has been a Convention that the MPs inform while going abroad.
As far as ministers are concerned, they have to seek permission from the government before travelling abroad.
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