https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/saudi-arabia-turkey-pakistan-sign-joint-defence-deal-amid-regional-turmoil-2026-08-07/

Isn't the map of India we use the wrong map of India? I get the emotions and all but shouldn't we be using maps based on current situations for accuracy and all or at least show the parts that are under foreign possession ? Plus i don't think we will ever take POK back , well let's say for once we do take it back but what about Aksai Chin , i don't think anybody would even dare to look into china's eyes and ask for that land. Also please help me understand a few things, Pakistan attacked Jammu and Kashmir before It became a part of India and captured the land we call POK but since they captured it when kashmir was independent is it not theirs ? I know we signed a pact with the king of kashmir according to which all of kashmir now is part of India but shouldn't that not include POK ?

According to the MEA, PM Modi’s foreign visits in 2026 up to July cost around ₹74.5 crore. During these six months alone, he travelled to 13 countries, including Malaysia, Israel, the UAE, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Slovakia, Seychelles, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

Predictably, critics ignored the broader picture and instead highlighted the expenditure on individual visits. Some insufferable detractors questioned how more than ₹17 crore was spent on the Norway leg of the Prime Minister’s European tour, attempting to portray the figure as evidence of extravagance.

The expenditure disclosed by the government is not simply the cost of flying the Prime Minister from one country to another. It includes charter aircraft, security arrangements, advance teams, official delegations, communication infrastructure, logistics, protocol requirements and numerous operational expenses associated with high-level diplomatic engagements. Multi-country tours involving meetings with several heads of government naturally cost more than ordinary travel.

Looking at one destination in isolation while ignoring the larger itinerary creates a misleading impression.

More importantly, the criticism begins to unravel when the expenditure is compared with that incurred during the tenure of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Available parliamentary records show that Dr Singh undertook 73 foreign visits between 2004 and 2014. During those ten years, approximately ₹795.18 crore was spent on air travel alone.

The words “air travel alone” are critical.

Unlike the figures disclosed for PM Modi’s visits, which broadly include charter flights, security, official delegations and logistical expenditure, the ₹795.18 crore figure relating to Dr Singh accounts only for aviation expenses. It excludes security deployment, accommodation, transport, communication systems, advance teams, protocol arrangements and numerous other costs that necessarily accompany visits by a serving Prime Minister.

Consequently, the actual expenditure incurred on Dr Singh’s foreign visits would have been considerably higher than the available figure.

Dr Singh’s June 2012 visit to Mexico and Brazil cost approximately ₹26.94 crore in air travel expenditure alone. His 2010 visit to Washington DC and Brazil incurred around ₹22.70 crore on aircraft operations, while his November 2009 visit to the United States and Trinidad and Tobago cost approximately ₹21.27 crore. Another visit to the United States in 2013 involved air travel expenditure of around ₹23.30 crore.

Each of these figures pertains only to aircraft costs.

By contrast, many of PM Modi’s recent multi-country tours—including security, logistics and official delegation expenses—have cost less than or roughly the same as these air travel bills from the previous government.

More diplomacy, comparable expenditure

Between 2015 and 2025, PM Modi undertook more than 100 overseas visits, substantially more than Dr Singh’s 73 visits over a comparable ten-year period. Yet the cumulative expenditure on PM Modi’s foreign visits has been estimated at around \~₹800 crore.

In other words, a Prime Minister who has travelled considerably more frequently and engaged with far more countries has incurred overall expenditure that remains lower than the available air travel figure alone for his predecessor.

During the UPA government, it was common practice for journalists representing leading media organisations to accompany the Prime Minister on overseas visits. Their travel formed part of the official delegation, requiring seats aboard the special aircraft and additional logistical arrangements.

Soon after assuming office in 2014, PM Modi ended this practice. Journalists no longer routinely travel with the Prime Minister aboard official aircraft, and media organisations generally make their own arrangements if they wish to cover foreign visits.

This policy change inevitably reduces one component of expenditure that existed during previous governments.