PM Modi during his July visit to Russia's Moscow in 2024 (image-X/mr_mayank)
The Modi government spent over Rs 20 crores for Prime Minister’s tour to Russia and Abu Dhabi in 2024, revealed the responses to RTI queries made by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd). However, despite filing RTIs with all Indian embassies in the countries the PM visited, only two replied.
Based on the RTI replies, the Modi government spent more than Rs 15 crore on the prime minister’s two trips to Russia. He visited Moscow in July and Kazan in October. The RTI reply revealed that Rs 4.95 crore was spent for his trip to visit Abu Dhabi in February 2024, with the expenditure debited under the “council of ministers” budget head.
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Notably, the total cost of his foreign trips largely remains undisclosed since most Indian embassies abroad are yet to disclose information in reply to the RTI queries made by Batra.
Most of the embassies are forwarding his RTIs to the Ministry of External Affairs instead of providing the information themselves, Batra told Newslaundry.
The PM’s trip to Moscow in July cost Rs 5.12 crore, including Rs 1.81 crore for hotel arrangements, Rs 1.87 crore for a community reception, Rs 59.06 lakh for transport, Rs 20.81 lakh for daily allowances, and Rs 62.56 lakh of miscellaneous expenses, as per the RTI replies.
Meanwhile, the October Kazhan visit cost Rs 10.24 crore. The RTI replies stated that Rs 1.62 crore was spent on hotels, Rs 1.79 crore on transport, Rs 25.67 lakh on daily allowance, and a whopping Rs 6.56 crore on miscellaneous expenses.
The embassy did not state any external sponsorship or funding for these visits.
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“It is strange that many embassies, which had provided similar details in response to my RTIs in 2015, are now denying information that should be in the public domain under the RTI Act’s proactive disclosure clauses,” said Batra, seeking transparency in where the taxpayer’s money is used, as quoted by the Newslaundry.
In his RTI query, he asked for the total cost of each foreign trip, a breakdown of expenses under categories including accommodation, transport, and events, and whether any parts of the trips were sponsored or funded by external organisations.
