PM Modi’s Rs 6.56 crore ‘miscellaneous expenses’ on his 2024 Kazan trip

Indian embassies abroad have been reluctant to share information under the RTI (Right to Information), especially on expenses incurred on the prime minister’s visits overseas.

However, the Indian embassies in Abu Dhabi and in Moscow turned out to be exceptions and replied to RTI queries submitted by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (rtd).

Both Indian missions pegged their expenses on each prime ministerial visit at approximately Rs 5 crore, the bulk of the amount spent on booking hotel rooms and on hiring vehicles.

The carefully crafted responses and break-ups, sanitised or not, would have been approved by the ministry and the heads of the missions. Expectedly, therefore, there are no surprises — and not a whiff about who and how many were hosted in these hotels and why the Indian embassies spent Rs 20–25 lakh on ‘daily allowances’ on each visit.

It is possible, though, that officials travelling with the PM are paid these daily allowances by the Indian embassies. No details, of course, are available on the number of officials travelling or the number of personal staff.

There is also suspense around allegations that professional or amateur dancers, musicians and cheerleaders travel from India to greet the PM on his arrival or at community interactions. It is not known if the ‘daily allowance’ — Rs 20 lakh during the PM’s visit to Moscow in July 2024 and Rs 25 lakh during his two-day visit to Kazan in October — was paid to the cheerleaders.

The breakup does say that the embassy in Moscow spent the sum of Rs 1.87 crore on a ‘community reception’ for Prime Minister Modi in Moscow in July.

Asked by Batra whether ‘sponsors’ were involved in organising the receptions, etc., the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi named one ‘Ahlan Modi’ who had organised the community interaction with the PM.

The reply from Moscow, however, seems to suggest that it was the embassy which invited and hosted the Indian community leaders to meet the PM.

There is also suspense around the rather large sum of Rs 6.56 crore — more than the expenses on hotels, transportation, daily allowances and community interactions — shown as ‘miscellaneous’ expenses during the PM’s two-day visit to Kazan.

Batra told Newslaundry that since it was taxpayers’ money, taxpayers need to know the details. He emphasised the need for transparency, stating that taxpayers’ money must be accounted for.

“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,” he added.

None of the other Indian embassies, however, have responded to his queries — while forwarding the queries to the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi. In his RTI applications, Commodore Batra had asked for the total cost of each foreign trip, a breakdown of expenses under various heads such as accommodation, transport and events, and whether any part of the visits was sponsored or funded by external organisations.

As for Abu Dhabi, the Indian embassy there revealed Rs 4.95 crore was spent on Modi’s visit to the UAE in February 2024, with the expenditure debited under the budget head for the ‘council of ministers’.

Full details of the RTI replies received by the commodore in the pdf below.