Fact Check: Did Manmohan Singh undertake more foreign visits than Narendra Modi?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 8, 2017
The BJP President Amit Shah’s statement that Manmohan Singh made more foreign trips than Narendra Modi is wrong on all counts. Here is a fact check.
Manmohan Singh made more foreign trips than Narendra Modi was the statement made by BJP President Amit Shah recently in Palampur of Himachal Pradesh.
But is Amit Shah’s statement true? Here is a fact check based on the data on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Manmohan Singh’s term as Prime Minister
Between 2004 & 2014 when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, he made a total of 80 foreign trips spanning 303 days. He made at least 10 trips in each of the years 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2013. He made at least 5 foreign trips in every year of his tenure except in 2012 and 2014. In 2014 he made only one foreign trip before demitting office. He was abroad for at least 30 days in 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. On average, each of this foreign trip lasted around 3.8 days. He made slightly greater number of trips in his second term compared to his first term.
Narendra’s Modi term as the Prime Minister
On the other hand, Narendra Modi made a total of 54 foreign trips in the first 3 years of his tenure lasting 132 days. He made 9 foreign trips in 2014, 27 in 2015 and 18 in 2016. His trips lasted 32 days in 2014, 64 days in 2015 and 18 days in 2016. Each trip on average lasted 2.5 days. In fact, Narendra Modi made more foreign trips in his first 3 years as the Prime Minister than Manmohan Singh made either during his entire first term as PM (2004-2009) or his entire second term (2009-14).
Comparing first 3 years of Manmohan Singh & Narendra Modi
Amit Shah’s statement was wrong on all counts. Not only did Manmohan Singh make fewer trips than Narendra Modi in the first 3 years of both his terms, he was abroad for fewer days than Narendra Modi in the first 3 years of both his terms.  In fact, in his first 3 years of term 1, Manmohan Singh made fewer trips than Narendra Modi made in 2015 alone. At the current rate, Narendra Modi will make greater number of trips compared to those by Manmohan Singh in either of his terms. It has to be noted that the average duration of each trip made by Narendra Modi is less than that of Manmohan Singh.