PM Modi, Manmohan SinghDid former primer minister Manmohan Singh fly abroad more frequently than his successor Narendra Modi, as BJP president Amit Shah recently claimed. A fact check by Manorama Editorial Research has found that Modi’s close confidant got his facts horribly wrong.
"When Manmohan Singh went abroad, no one took notice, someone told me. Wherever Modi goes, thousands of people throng the airport and pavements to have a glimpse of him," Shah said in Goa.
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The truth is, Modi has visited more countries in three years than all the destinations covered by Singh in his 10-year tenure. Singh had visited 42 countries in his two stints as the prime minister. Modi has already visited 48 countries in three years, compared with 18 visited by Singh in the same period.
Modi was abroad for 144 days since taking over as the prime minister on May 26, 2014. In other words the prime minister was abroad for 13 percent of his time in office. Singh spent 96 days abroad in the comparable period between May 22, 2004 and July 2, 2007, or 8 percent of his time in office.
The countries visited by Modi
Modi has gone to the United States five times and visited France and Russia three times. He has also visited China, Germany, Japan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Nepal two times. The other countries on the list are Bhutan, Brazil, Myanmar, Australia, Fiji, Seychelles, Mauritius, Canada, Mongolia, South Korea, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Britain, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Switzerland, Mexico, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Singh had visited Russia, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Laos, Mauritius, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Germany, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Cuba, South Africa, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand in the first three years in office.
He had spent 303 days abroad in the 10 years of his stint in the PMO.
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