Both are keen to visit foreign countries on public money.
**New Delhi, Jan. 2: **The Narendra Modi government is struggling to fix the country’s 2015 diplomatic travel calendar for India’s top leaders - after the Prime Minister in his first six months travelled too much not just for the Opposition’s liking but also for the foreign office budget.
The ministry of external affairs was by end-October on the verge of exhausting the Rs 15-crore budget it was allocated in July for “high-level visits abroad” this financial year, which stretches till March 31, the foreign office’s monthly account statements reveal.
The foreign ministry now needs additional funding for these “high level visits” - diplomatic jargon for foreign trips by the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and foreign minister - over the next three months, multiple officials have told The Telegraph.
That additional funding is possible under mid-financial-year “revised budget estimates” - it was needed once, and was obtained, during Manmohan Singh’s 10-year stint as Prime Minister.
But though a revision in the budget is now virtually unavoidable, sections of officials fear a hike could attract fresh Opposition criticism for Modi’s frequent foreign trips, responsible for the biggest chunk of expenses on “high level visits” since July.
“I have never approached a New Year’s Eve without the basic skeletal calendar for the PM’s travel the coming year,” a diplomat who has served in the Indian Foreign Service for over 20 years said on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now we’re into the new year and we’re still waiting.”
Modi has a stack of invitations from key nations seeking a visit by the Indian Prime Minister in 2015.
Sri Lanka, the UK and China have indicated they ideally want Modi to visit in the first three months of the year. Germany and Canada are hoping the Indian Prime Minister visits them in April, a month officials from these nations have discussed with their Indian counterparts as a possible slot for a Modi trip.
**
Bangladesh and Iran have invited Modi for 2015 visits without specifying any particular month they prefer. Modi is also expected to travel to Russia in July for the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa summit, and possibly again later in the year for an annual bilateral dialogue and a meet of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, which is likely to induct India into the grouping.**
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj too remains in high demand - particularly from West Asia and Africa, where some nations are nursing angst at perceived coolness from the Modi government so far.
Both President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari are expected to make overseas trips in 2015, to cover geographies the Prime Minister in particular is unable to visit.
But the foreign office, while planning their 2015 calendar, is finding itself having to account for a 2014 hangover.
Among the four leaders whose travels eat into the budget for “high level visits abroad,” Sushma made the maximum foreign trips - 11 on her own, and three more as a part of Modi’s delegation.
But overseas trips by Indian foreign ministers don’t usually cost much. They do not use a specially inducted Air India plane - unlike the Prime Minister, President and Vice President - and keep a far leaner entourage of officials and security personnel.
Among the three VVIPs, Ansari, a former career diplomat who the Manmohan Singh government used as a diplomatic point person even after he became Vice-President, has travelled overseas just once under the Modi administration: in late June to China.
The President, who Modi has nudged to travel more, visited Vietnam in September, Norway and Finland in October and Bhutan in November.
**
Modi has travelled to nine nations in six months - spending almost one whole month of this period abroad - clocking a number higher than his predecessor Singh, who also loved travelling, did in a similar period in any of his 10 years in office.**
This is not the first time a government has overshot its budget for overseas travel by VVIPs and the foreign minister. By the end of October 2011, the Manmohan Singh government had spent over Rs 19 crore for “high level visits abroad” - when it had a budget of Rs 15 crore. Then too, the government needed - and got - additional funds for the rest of the financial year.
But Modi has faced criticism rare for an Indian Prime Minister from sections of the Opposition for his frequent foreign trips, which some have contrasted with his relative silence in Parliament.
