BENGALURU: The Centre is said to have denied clearance for Karnataka IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge’s visit to the United States to attend the ongoing Boston Bio 2025 convention in Boston, and other official events.
Kharge, who is currently in Paris on an official visit, said he will speak about the issue and seek an explanation from the Union government after returning to India. “I’m holding back on making any public statements for now. Once I’m back in Bengaluru, I will seek a clear explanation from the Government of India regarding this denial,” the minister stated, taking to social media platform X.
Kharge was scheduled to attend the Bio International Convention in Boston and Design Automation Conference in San Francisco. Sources said MEA clearance is required to attend official events. No reason was given for denying clearance for his visit, sources said. The minister was scheduled to travel directly from Paris to the US, but will now return to Bengaluru on Wednesday night, sources said.
Denial may snowball into a political issue
A delegation of senior officers from the state IT/BT department has already reached Boston to attend the conference, and the minister was expected to join them to lead the Karnataka delegation.
In Paris, the minister attended several official programmes and also visited the Paris Air Show. “The energy around India and especially Karnataka at the Paris Air Show is electrifying. It was encouraging to see global stakeholders recognising the potential of our aerospace and defence ecosystem. There is a lot of learning we can take back from here, innovations in technology and sustainability to international best practices in building integrated supply chains,” he posted on X. The minister stated that those insights will be vital as they strengthen Karnataka’s leadership in aviation, aerospace and space sectors, and scale up the ecosystem to meet global demand.
Denial of clearance to the minister’s US visit is likely to snowball into a political issue between the State and Union governments.