Why Arvind Kejriwal was denied permission to visit Denmark?

New Delhi, Oct 09: The Centre on Wednesday justified its decision to deny permission to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to attend a climate summit in Denmark, saying it is meant for "mayor-level" participants.

Kejriwal was to leave on Tuesday for the C-40 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"A considered decision on political clearance by the Ministry of External Affairs is based on multiple inputs and takes into account the nature of the event, the level of participation by other countries, type of invitation extended, etc. In the instant case, the participation of Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi as a Speaker at a panel discussion was not commensurate with the level of participation from other countries," official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

The chief minister of one of the largest and populous cities in the world, which also is the capital of India, was therefore advised not to attend the event, he said.

"This is a mayor-level conference and a Bengal minister is going to participate in it," Javadekar said at a press meet on cabinet announcements.

"This is unfortunate and beyond my understanding. Why is Modi Ji's government working with such hostility towards us?" Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh was quoted saying by news agency ANI.

"It was not Arvind Kejriwal's personal visit, he was not going for some fun but to explain to Asia's 100 city mayors, how the pollution of Delhi was reduced by 25 per cent. He was going to explain the benefit of the "odd-even" scheme," he said.