₹2,000 crores spent on PM Modi’s trips abroad since 2014  

Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh revealed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, December 15, around ₹7200 crore were spent on policy promotions and foreign trips of PM Modi $280 million that is around ₹2000 crores of the public money was used for PM Modi’s foreign trips to 84 countries he was out of the country for 171 days in the four years. Mr. Modi has visited China and the U.S. five times (the highest). He flew to the U.S. twice in 2016-17 and has visited China twice 2018.

In response to questions asked by CPI MP Binoy Viswam on the number and names of countries that Modi has visited since 2014, the names of ministers who accompanied him during the visits, the details of agreements signed, and the amount paid to Air India for his travel VK singh revealed the Price

Singh’s response detailed the expenses incurred in Modi’s visits including the money spent on each trip, including the cost of maintenance on Air India One and setting up a secure hotline. A total of ₹1,583.18 crore was spent on aircraft maintenance, ₹429.28 crore on chartered flights, and ₹9.12 crore on a secure hotline. The cost of a secure hotline from May 2017 to December 2018 has not been provided.

However previously in the month of June, Singh had had revealed to the Rajya Sabha that the government had spent ₹1,484 crore since June 2014 for Modi’s visits to 84 countries. In 2014-15, Modi had visited 13 countries with first one as prime minister to Bhutan in June 2014. In 2018, he travelled to 10 countries with the last one being to China last month.
The cost for chartered flights to overseas destinations in 2014-15 was ₹93.76 crore while in 2015-16, it was ₹117 crore. In 2016-17, the cost was ₹76.27 crore and in 2017-18, the expense on chartered flight was ₹99.32 crore

Opposition has many a times criticised Prime Minister for travelling abroad time and again. Modi has also faced flak for some of his travel which had added unreasonable expenses.

Earlier this year, during a visit to Rwanda, Modi gifted 200 dairy cows to support President Paul Kagame’s initiative to reduce poverty, while in China he signed a memorandum of understanding to open a yoga college in Yunnan province.

However sensing oppositions displeasure, in his reply trying to defend Modi’s expenditure, V K Singh pointed out that "the objective of PM’s visits abroad has been to enhance mutual understanding and to strengthen our relations with these countries across a wide range of sectors including trade, investment, technology, development partnership and to enhance people-to-people ties".

"Diplomatic outreach during this period (since May 2014) has included first ever visits from India to several countries at the head of government level, this outreach has led to enhanced engagement of India's foreign partners in its flagship programmes. he added