How PM Narendra Modi spent $1 billion on ads, foreign trips?

On the foreign tours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from 2014 till now, more than 2000 crores has been spent. Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Thursday gave details of Modi’s foreign visits between June 15, 2014 and December 3, 2018 in the Rajya Sabha. Indian Communist Party MP Benoy Vishwam had asked that the total amount spent in the Prime Minister’s foreign tours since the year 2014 has been spent. In addition, he sought information about the names of the countries, the names of the ministers accompanying the Prime Minister and the signed agreements. VK Singh gave detailed information about Modi’s visits in response. He told about the amount spent on each visit, including the cost of maintenance of Air India and the amount spent on the hotline.

Singh said that a total of Rs 1,583.18 crore was spent on the maintenance of the Prime Minister on aircraft maintenance, Rs 429.28 crore on chartered flights and Rs 9.12 crore on the hotline. Details about the amount spent on the hotline from May 2017 to December 2018 in the details provided by Singh have not been given.

The money on advertisements—some of which bear Modi’s image was also presented in parliament by Rajyavardhan Rathore, the junior minister for information and broadcasting. However, Government spokesman Sitanshu Kar did not respond to three calls to his mobile phone on Friday, while a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, did not respond to a call and text for comment.

Accordingly, a total of 2,021.58 crore rupees have been spent on foreign visits of  Narendra Modi between June 15, 2014 to December 3, 2018. The central government had told in June last year that since June 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expenditure on chartered flights, maintenance of aircraft and hotline facilities during the visit of 84 countries to the tune of Rs. 1,484 crores was spent.