BJP MEA grounds Telangana Rising
MEA blocked CM Revanth Reddy’s US leg, saying the proposed programme wasn’t appropriate to his office or the visit’s purpose. Telangana says the trip was for universities, tech and jobs — and politics shouldn’t get to veto that.
The proposed US leg was denied political clearance, while the stated education and technology agenda remained unexplained.
The BJP-led Centre’s Ministry of External Affairs denied political clearance for Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s US leg on 21 August, with its spokesperson saying the “programme proposed… should be appropriate to the office held and the purpose of the visit. In this particular case, that was not so in respect of the United States.” Multiple reports carried Randhir Jaiswal’s wording from the briefing.
Telangana’s side says the visit — part of the Telangana Rising push — was about education, technology, investments and university partnerships. The state’s own note on Reddy’s 5 August meeting with US Ambassador Sergio Gor lists exactly that agenda. Reddy said the aim was to bring top global institutions to Telangana under the Union’s own New Education Policy, and asked everyone to think beyond politics and elections when it’s the future of youth at stake.
Reports say the UK leg went ahead, but the US stop was nixed, forcing the CM to return from London; officials indicated the delegation’s US meetings could still proceed without him. Which part of the itinerary failed the MEA’s test is not on the record — no meeting list, no named event, no rule cited — just the BJP government’s airy standard that it wasn’t “appropriate”. Telangana’s universities and students can wait, apparently; protocol can’t.