NO REQUEST FOR RAHUL’S VISIT TO KAILASH MANSAROVAR, SAYS MEA
NEWDELHI:The minisry of external affairs (MEA) said on Thursday that it did not receive any request from Congress president Rahul Gandhi to undertake this year’s Kailash Mansarovar yatra in China’s Tibetan region.
“We have not received any formal request for his visit to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to a question at a media briefing.
His response came following media reports citing Congress sources which said that Gandhi, who had expressed his desire to go for the yatra after the Karnataka assembly elections, had not received a response to his request for special permission from the central government. Kumar said Gandhi could visit Kailash Mansarovar either through the MEAorganised route or through a private route. Kumar said Gandhi’s name was not registered as an applicant to undertake the yatra (in the first option) and the MEA has not received any communication for the second option as well.
An MEA press release dated February 21 said the last date for registration was March 23.
However, Gandhi had announced his desire to undertake the pilgrimage on April 29 at the Jan Akrosh rally at Ramlila Maidan here, three days after an aircraft in which he was travelling from Delhi to Karnataka developed technical snag. The yatra is scheduled from June 8 to September 8 through the two routes, as per the MEA.
IANS & PTI