NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday indicated that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is unlikely to get clearance to attend a Punjabi conference in Lahore. It said requests by dignitaries to travel abroad are assessed in line with India's foreign policy.
"When it comes to relations with foreign countries, we have a national policy and expect everybody to abide by it," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the bi-weekly briefing here. Clearance requests are assessed "in line with its overall policy and processed accordingly", he added.
"As far as our position on Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack is concerned, it should be amply clear to all as to where we stand," Jaiswal said.
After the Pahalgam terror attack last year in which 26 people were killed, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) placed the Indus Waters Treaty "in abeyance". It also shut the Attari land border, cancelled visas for Pakistani nationals and scaled down diplomatic ties. Travel between the two countries has stayed heavily restricted since. The MEA has said the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan "credibly and irrevocably" ends support for cross-border terrorism.
Earlier on the same day, Mann said his office was preparing to formally seek clearance. "We will wait for what they say. Political clearance has to be taken," he said.
Mann had told the Punjab Assembly last month that he had been invited to the fourth International Punjabi Conference in Lahore, from November 27 to 29. He wondered whether the BJP-led Centre would let him go. Pakistan has since said it would consider granting him a visa.
The MEA's remarks also come weeks after the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside the ministry's refusal of clearance for Mann's visit to a food exhibition in Paris. The court said the MEA had cited only a "political angle" without explaining it. The Centre had told the court the denial was over security, protocol and the lack of a formal invitation from the French government.
On Bangladesh, Jaiswal said India desires a "positive, constructive and forward-looking relationship". He said meetings had been held under structured mechanisms in trade, railways, water resources and border management.
He was responding to the postponement of the fifth India-Bangladesh consular dialogue, which had been scheduled for next week in Dhaka. The next round, which will also take up the revised travel arrangement, will be held on a mutually convenient date, he said.
The postponement comes amid fresh friction. This week, lawyers for deposed PM Sheikh Hasina, who has lived in India for over years, sought a new Bangladeshi passport for her. Dhaka has rejected the request and pressed New Delhi to extradite her.