A miffed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, now in US, has cancelled a reception to be hosted in his honour by the New York Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay today besides boycotting the Harvard lecture in protest against his minister Azam Khan’s detention at the Boston airport on Friday.
A communiqué from the Consulate General of India in New York merely stated “that due to unavoidable circumstances, the reception scheduled to be held in honour of Akhilesh Kumar Yadav, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on April 27 at the Consulate General of India, New York has been cancelled”.
Neither the Consul General Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay, who took charge on Wednesday after his assignment as Ambassador of Maldives nor Minister (Press and Information) M Rajaram was available for any comments to the media on the reason for cancellation of the reception. This is the first official function of the Consulate after Muley took charge.
Invitation to the reception were sent out to all the prominent Indian-Americans, community leaders, elected officials, friends of India in New York and the media two days ago after the consulate got the confirmation from the Office of Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
To protest against the alleged misbehaviour with Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Azam Khan at Logan International Airport at Boston, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Khan on Friday boycotted an event at Harvard University for which they had gone to the US. Instead, state government officials, led by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani, attended the function and made the presentation on Kumbh Mela.
Afaq Ahmed, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Khan, said, “We are not attending the Harvard University function. We are very much disturbed due to the incident at the airport. Our minister was humiliated. It is an insult.”
Ahmed, who is part of the team of officials, was reached over the phone at a hotel in Boston.
Instead of attending the function, the CM, Azam and Abhishek Mishra, Minister of State for Science and Technology, left for New York where they will stay for the night and leave for India on Saturday.
The Harvard India Student Group in Harvard University had invited Akhilesh and Azam for a panel discussion with students, which was scheduled for Friday. The conversation was to cover topics such as vision of the state, leadership, governance and major initiatives being run, Kumbh festival, urbanisation challenges and how Harvard students can engage with the state government to contribute to the Indian society.
Akhilesh, along with Azam and others, left for the US on April 24 and were due to return on April 29.
Upon reaching Logan International Airport at Boston, Azam was allegedly detained for questioning. His office at Lucknow issued a statement late on Thursday night, stating that Khan was insulted, humiliated and harassed by officials at the airport despite holding a diplomatic passport. It also mentioned that authorities behaved with him in this manner because he is a Muslim.
The chief minister is scheduled to leave for India from New York JFK Airport on Sunday and Azam Khan today by scheduled British Airways flight.
Khan, a senior leader of the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP and also the state Urban Development minister who was accompanying Yadav, was detained for about 10 minutes at the Boston Logan International Airport for “further questioning” on Wednesday after he landed in a scheduled British Airways flight from India.
——PTI