"I am not a criminal", said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, stressing that there appears to be a "political reason" behind the Centre's delay in granting him permission to visit Singapore for a summit.
Miffed over the pending clearance, the chief minister had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, saying he has been waiting for the permission for over a month.
Kejriwal said he was specially invited to the World Cities Summit in Singapore by the government of that country, where he will present the 'Delhi Model' before world leaders and bring glory to India.
"I am not a criminal. I am an elected chief minister and a free citizen of the country. There was no legal basis to stop me from visiting Singapore so there appears to be a political reason behind this," Kejriwal said after casting his vote for presidential elections here.
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Officials said the files for seeking permission for official visits of the chief minister and ministers are sent to the Lt Governor for his nod and further approval by the Ministry of External Affairs.
A file for Kejriwal's Singapore visit was sent by Delhi government to LG office on June 7. The summit will take place in the first week of August.
High Commissioner of Singapore Simon Wong had in June invited Kejriwal to World Cities Summit. The Delhi chief minister has been asked to attend a programme on the first day.
The chief minister said he usually does not go on foreign visits but intended to go to the Singapore summit as it concerns the progress of the country.
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Kejriwal said the 'Delhi Model' enabled "remarkable progress" in all the sectors of governance and made a "significant change" in the lives of people of the city.
"All the leaders of the world would get to know about the Delhi Model which would have made the country proud. The Delhi Model has already been praised all over the world," he said.
The Chief Minister who also heads Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) batted for cooperation among all the governments and parties in the country, rising above politics, in the matters of country's pride and glory.
"Ex-prime minister of Norway visited mohalla clinics. Former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon also visited mohalla clinics. The country should take pride in this and such showcasing should be encouraged," he said.
The central government should not stop this, Kejriwal said and added if a common man is free to travel outside the country, then why can not he as the elected chief minister of Delhi.
