Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday described questions raised over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s foreign trips and their funding as “very serious”, and urged the Leader of Opposition to disclose details of his overseas visits to the concerned authorities to avoid possible legal action.
The remarks came a day after the BJP questioned Gandhi’s foreign travel expenses and sought details of the source of funding, alleging a mismatch between his declared income and expenditure on foreign visits.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, party spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that Gandhi had undertaken 54 foreign trips over the last 22 years, incurring a cumulative expenditure of around Rs 60 crore.
Patra alleged that Gandhi’s annual income disclosed in election affidavits over the past decade totalled around Rs 11 crore, raising questions over the funding of the trips.
Commenting on the issue, Rijiju said the concerns raised over Gandhi’s foreign visits were “very serious”.
“My request to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party is that (you) please follow the rules and provide the requisite information to the authorities… Tomorrow, if anything happens, if some actions are initiated, then the government should not be blamed for targeting Rahulji,” the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs told reporters.
Rijiju said every Member of Parliament is required to inform the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat at least three weeks in advance about foreign visits.
He added that MPs must also inform the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) if they accept foreign hospitality or if travel expenses are borne by foreign agencies or organisations.
“Section 6 of the FCRA Act 2010 clearly stipulates how an MP should inform the MHA and also the MEA of their foreign hospitality which they accept,” Rijiju said.
“So, if you are spending much more than your known source of income, then it is a matter of income tax rules. And if you accept the foreign hospitality without informing the MHA under Section 6 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), then there are penalty provisions,” he added.
The minister also referred to Gandhi’s “unannounced” foreign visits, saying they were in “multiple numbers”.
“The recent matter which came to the public domain about his sudden visit to Muscat without informing anybody… the Congress party has not given any kind of clarification for that,” he said.
“Whether it's a visit to Thailand or Vietnam, I think Rahul Gandhi, being the Leader of Opposition should disclose it. Why is he visiting all these places? There is no restriction for any MP to visit anywhere,” Rijiju said.
“But you must inform who are the people who invited you and what expenditure was incurred by those agencies and organisations outside India,” he added.
