The members of the Union Cabinet spent a total of 393 days in foreign visits. More than 42% of the Union Cabinet made foreign visits in the first 9 months of the NDA government. Most of these visits were made for bilateral and multilateral summits.
One of the major talking points in the first year of the NDA Government has been the extensive foreign travel undertaken by the Prime Minister. While a lot has been written and said about the foreign visits undertaken by the Prime Minister, there is little written about his Cabinet colleagues. Factly compiled data about the foreign travel undertaken by the members of the Cabinet from May 2014 to March 2015. Twenty seven (27) of Modi’s Cabinet colleagues undertook at least one foreign visit. This is about 42% of the total strength of the Union Cabinet.
Countries Visited
A total of sixty (60) countries were visited by at least one member of the Union Cabinet. All of them together spent 393 days abroad. Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Six(6) of his cabinet colleagues visited at least five countries. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Gen. (Dr) V K Singh (Retd), MoS for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari, Mos for Environment Prakash Javdekar & MoS for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman visited at least five countries.
Purpose of Such Visits
Many of them travelled abroad for bilateral & multilateral summits. They also travelled abroad for BRICS Summit, G-20 related meetings, attending World Economic Forum, SAARC meetings, World Congress & Asia meetings on various issues etc. Seven of the ministers undertook foreign travel for private visits.
The details of the visits by the members of the Union Cabinet are in the table below.
| S No | Name of the Minister | Portfolio | Number of Countries Visited | Number of Days | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shri Narendra Modi | Prime Minister | 18 | 54 | Bi-lateral, Multi Lateral Summits |
| 2 | Smt Sushma Swaraj | External Affairs | 18 | 52 | Bi-lateral, Multi Lateral Summits |
| 3 | Gen. (Dr) V K Singh (Retd) | External Affairs (MoS) | 11 | 25 | Bilateral Talks & Other Events |
| 4 | Shri Dharmendra Pradhan | Petroleum and Natural Gas(MoS) | 5 | 14 | World Petroleum Congress,TAPI Gas Pipeline,World Petroleum Congress |
| 5 | Shri Nitin Gadkari | Road Transport and Highways | 5 | 12 | Nepal Summit, Bi-lateral Meetings, Private Visit (Sweden) |
| 6 | Shri Prakash Javadekar | Environment, Climate Change, Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs (MoS) | 5 | 26 | United Nations meeting, Major Economic Forum, Climate Change Summit,UN Conference on Climate Change |
| 7 | Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman | Commerce & Industry (MoS) | 5 | 23 | BRICS Summit, G-20, Bi-lateral meetings, Accompanied Vice President of India |
| 8 | Shri Harsha Vardhan | Health and Family Welfare (Earlier) | 4 | 17 | Global Meets of Health Ministers & World Conferences |
| 9 | Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu | Parliamentary Affairs, Urban Development & Housing and Urban Poverty Alleivation | 4 | 18 | Leader of Parliamentary Delegation, Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference, Smartcity Expo World Congress |
| 10 | Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar | Textiles, Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation | 4 | 14 | Goodwill delegation of Parliamentarians |
| 11 | Shri Suresh Prabhu | Railways | 4 | 11 | Private Visit (Moscow), G-20 Meetings, 13thAnnual Flagship Conference India Unlimited |
| 12 | Shri Rajnath Singh | Home Minister | 3 | 8 | SAARC & Bi-lateral meetings |
| 13 | Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad | Communications and Information Technology and Law & Justice | 3 | 9 | Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) ICT Ministerial meeting,International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting |
| 14 | Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal | Food Processing Industries | 3 | 18 | Private Visit (Italy & UAE), SIAL Fair 2014 |
| 15 | Shri Arun Jaitley | Finance | 2 | 16 | Annual BRICS Meeting, G-20, World Economic Forum, Private Visit (USA) |
| 16 | Shri Kalraj Mishra | Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises | 2 | 7 | Interactive Business Sessions, Inauguration of Vocational Training with GOI Support |
| 17 | Shri Narendra Singh Tomar | Mines, Steel, Labour & Employment | 2 | 8 | G-20 meeting & “MINING INDABA 2015” |
| 18 | Shri P Radhakrishnan | Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises(MoS) | 2 | 6 | Accompanied the President of India |
| 19 | Shri Anant Geete | Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises | 1 | 2 | Annual Indian Investment Forum |
| 20 | Shri Birender Singh | Rural Development | 1 | 9 | AARDO Conference |
| 21 | Shri Inderjit Singh | Planning,Statistics and Programme Implementation and Defense (MoS) | 1 | 6 | Private Visit (Spain) |
| 22 | Shri Jayant Sinha | Finance (MoS) | 1 | 5 | G-20 meeting |
| 23 | Shri Kiren Rijiju | Home Affairs (MoS) | 1 | 6 | Asian Ministerial Conference on various issues |
| 24 | Shri Manoj Kumar Sinha | Railways (MoS) | 1 | 10 | Private Visit (USA) |
| 25 | Shri Piyush Goyal | Power, Coal and NRE (MoS) | 1 | 3 | World Economic Forum |
| 26 | Shri. Gowdara Mallikarjunappa Siddeswara | Civil Aviation(MoS) | 1 | 6 | Private Visit (USA) |
| 27 | Shri. Shripad Yesso Naik | AYUSH and Health and Family Welfare (MoS) | 1 | 4 | Ministerial segment of 83rd General Assembly of IMTERPOL |
| 28 | Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi | Women & Child Development | 1 | 4 | Asian and Pacific Conference on ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment |
Source: Unstarred Question No 3678, answered on 18th March, 2015 in the Lok Sabha, Ministry of External Affairs.
This article has been republished from Factly.in.