A fresh controversy has erupted over the scale of public money spent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign travels.
On Friday, the Congress’ Kerala unit posted on X: “RTI reveals PM Modi’S Saudi visit cost Rs 15 cr for just 12 hours.”
The source of this claim is a reply from the Consulate General of India in Jeddah, to a query by Ajay Basudev Bose, a Maharashtra-based RTI activist.
A media report citing the RTI made the details public.
Congress captioned its post: “That’s burning 1.25 Cr per hour. For just 12 hours he booked an entire hotel for 10.2 Crs. The biggest liability of the nation!”
According to the RTI reply, Modi’s April visit to Saudi Arabia, cut short to less than 12 hours after the Pahalgam terrorist attack, cost the exchequer Rs 15.54 crore.
The biggest share of the bill, Rs 10.2 crore, was spent on hotel bookings.
“What the Consulate has provided shows that the government spent an unusually high amount for just a few hours in Jeddah,” Bose told reporters, adding it was “shocking for the Central government to spend over Rs 10 crore on hotel bookings alone,” reported Siasat.
“Will anybody question Modi about this extravagance,” Bose posted on X on August 29.
As per diplomatic protocol, the host nation is expected to arrange accommodations for visiting heads of state or government.
PM Modi’s Saudi stopover is now the most expensive of all his recent trips, surpassing a four-day visit to France in February (Rs 25.59 crore), a one-day trip to the United States (Rs 16.54 crore), and another one-day trip to Thailand (Rs 4.92 crore), reported Siasat.
Official data presented in the Rajya Sabha in July shows that Modi’s foreign travel expenses from 2021 to 2025 have already touched close to Rs 362 crore.
In 2025 till July, Rs 67 crore was spent on visits to five countries, with France topping the list at over Rs 25 crore. Figures for Mauritius, Cyprus and Canada are yet to be added.
The breakdown shows Rs 109 crore spent across 16 countries in 2024, nearly Rs 93 crore in 2023, Rs 55.82 crore in 2022, and Rs 36 crore in 2021.
PM Modi’s foreign trips have drawn criticism from the Opposition.
Earlier, Congress had seized on the numbers, branding Modi the “Super Premium Frequent Flier PM” and accusing him of evading domestic crises such as the Manipur ethnic violence.
The BJP had pushed back, accusing Congress of reducing foreign policy visits to “petty political jibes.”