CHANDIGARH, July 31 — The Centre has denied political clearance to Punjab Power and Public Works Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO for his proposed visit to the United States to attend an international legislative conference, officials confirmed Thursday.
Singh, a senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, had been invited to participate in the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Legislative Summit 2025, scheduled to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from August 4 to 6.
According to Punjab government sources, the formal communication declining permission arrived on Thursday, without citing a detailed reason.
This marks the fourth instance of a Punjab AAP leader being barred from foreign travel. In previous cases, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was denied clearance to attend the Paris Olympics, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan was stopped from visiting Kentucky, and New and Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora was not allowed to travel to Europe in 2022 to study hydrogen energy advancements.
The joint invitation to Harbhajan Singh ETO came from NCSL and National Legislators’ Conference Bharat (NLC Bharat), which, according to a July 28 press release, acknowledged his “notable contributions to legislative governance and public administration in Punjab.”
Responding to the invitation earlier, Singh had said, “The Summit will provide a platform to connect with legislative peers and policy innovators from across the globe, enabling me to bring back innovative ideas and best practices that can be implemented for the benefit of Punjab.”
The NCSL Legislative Summit is considered one of the world’s largest gatherings of lawmakers, policy experts, and public administrators, providing an international platform for idea exchange and collaboration.
While the Centre has not publicly elaborated on its reasoning, the repeated denial of clearances to AAP ministers has sparked political murmurs in Punjab over potential bias and bureaucratic hurdles faced by the state government.
