MEA says 'national policy' will decide Bhagwant Mann's Lahore trip, as Punjab CM awaits clearance

The Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that political clearance for Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s proposed visit to Lahore will be decided under India’s national policy on relations with foreign countries, and that its position on Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack “should be amply clear to all”. No clearance has yet been granted or refused.

Mann has been invited as chief guest to the 4th International World Punjabi Conference, a three-day gathering in Lahore due on November 27 to 29, about two weeks from now.

What the ministry said

Asked about the invitation at its weekly briefing in New Delhi, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal did not mention a decision. He said: “When it comes to relations with foreign countries, we have a national policy and expect everybody to abide by it.”

On the process, he said political clearances for dignitaries travelling abroad are assessed by the ministry, in line with its overall policy, and processed accordingly. Then he turned to Pakistan: “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.”

The ministry did not name Mann in the lines quoted from the briefing, and it did not say whether a request has reached it. That is consistent with what Mann himself said on Friday: his office is still completing the paperwork for a formal request.

The invitation

Mann confirmed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha last month that he had been invited to the Lahore conference, which he described as a cultural conclave. He said he wanted to go, and also doubted that the Centre would allow it. Referring to earlier trips, he said the Centre had not been keen to let him travel to France or Japan, and asked: “How will they let me go to Pakistan?”

His reply on Friday was measured. “We will wait for what they say. Political clearance has to be taken,” he said.

Mann has also asked for the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor to be reopened so that legislators can visit Sikh shrines across the border. In Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly, provincial minority affairs minister Ramesh Singh Arora, who also heads the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, invited all members of the Indian Punjab Assembly to visit Kartarpur Sahib and other sites, calling it a chance to see “religious freedom and interfaith harmony” in Pakistan. Arora, too, said he doubted Mann would get clearance, but that he was willing to host him.

Why a clearance is needed

Under rules followed by the Cabinet Secretariat and the MEA, chief ministers, state ministers and state officials must obtain prior political clearance from the MEA before an official or private foreign visit. For Pakistan the bar is higher in practice. After the Pahalgam attack, India and Pakistan froze diplomatic ties and suspended cross-border engagement, and New Delhi also suspended cross-border transit arrangements, including the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor.

The ministry’s own words on Friday point to that framework. Jaiswal’s reference to Pahalgam was not part of a general statement on clearances; he made it when asked about a trip to Pakistan.

How we got here

Clearance has become a point of friction between the Centre and opposition-ruled states this year. In August, the MEA refused political clearance for Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s United States leg, after his UK programme had been approved. The ministry said then that the proposed programme was not appropriate to the office he holds.

Mann’s own record is the more recent. The MEA denied clearance for his October trip to SIAL Paris, a food trade fair, citing the lack of a formal invitation from France and security inputs about threats to him. On October 16, the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside that refusal, and the Paris case was decided in the state’s favour. The state had argued that the refusal came without reasons or a hearing and that Mann’s Japan visit had brought in ₹2,000 crore of investment.

What happens next

The conference starts on November 27, which leaves the ministry and Punjab about two weeks. Mann has said the formal request will go in once the paperwork is ready, and the MEA has said each such request is assessed on its own against national policy.

Two things will show the answer. One is whether the ministry replies before the conference opens, since the Paris refusal was marked on the online portal without a reply to the state’s letters. The other is whether Punjab, having won in the High Court last month, goes back to court if the answer is no. Pakistan’s side had not commented on the ministry’s remarks by Friday evening.