Amid row over Kuwait visit bar on Kerala minister, a look at Centre’s ‘denials’ for leaders’ foreign trips

The bodies of 46 Indian workers, mostly from Kerala, who perished in a devastating fire in an apartment in Kuwait, were brought back home on Friday even as a controversy erupted over the denial of “political clearance” from the Centre to Kerala Health Minister Veena George to travel to Kuwait.

While Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh left for the Mangaf camp in Kuwait on June 12, the day of the incident, George was forced to drop her plans at the last minute at the Nedumbassery airport in Kochi after the Centre did not give its go-ahead for her trip.

The BJP-led central government’s move has upset the CPM-led Kerala government, with George calling it a “wrong approach”.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, also criticised it, terming it as a “wrong decision”. “Her presence in Kuwait as a representative of Kerala could have benefitted the victims’ families and those injured,” he said.

All government officials, including Union Ministers, Ministers of State, MPs, state Ministers and MLAs, are mandated to seek political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) before travelling abroad, even for personal visits.

According to a note by the Cabinet Secretariat, which elucidates the guidelines on the issue, the proposals relating to official visits abroad of Central Ministers (Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State holding independent charge, Minister of State or Deputy Ministers) require prior approval of the Prime Minister, and the visits have to be coordinated through the MEA, wherein requests have to be submitted at least 15 days ahead of the departure date.

In the case of Chief Ministers and Ministers of state governments, the Cabinet