‘Very serious’: Kiren Rijiju asks Rahul Gandhi to disclose details of his foreign travels
This came a day after the ruling BJP raised questions about Gandhi’s foreign trips and demanded disclosure of his funding sources, alleging that there was a clear mismatch between the Congress leader’s annual income and the money he spent on foreign travel.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party national spokesperson Sambit Patra said Gandhi had undertaken 54 foreign trips in the last 22 years, resulting in a total expenditure of Rs 60 billion. However, the BJP leader claimed that his annual annual income remains around Rs 11 billion in total, as stated in his poll affidavits in the last 10 years.
Commenting on the issue, Rijiju said that the questions asked about Gandhi’s foreign trips were “very serious”.
“My request to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party is that you please follow the rules and provide necessary information to the authorities… If anything happens tomorrow, if some protests are launched, then the government should not be blamed for targeting Rahulji,” Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs told reporters here.
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Rijiju said that every Member of Parliament (MP) must inform the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat three weeks in advance for their foreign visits. He also said that they should also inform the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about their foreign trips if they agree to host foreigners and have their travel expenses covered by some institution or organisation.
Rijiju said section 6 of the FCRA Act 2010 clearly stipulates how an MP must inform the MHA and also the MEA about the foreign hospitality they accept.
“So, if you are spending much more than your known source of income, it is a matter of income tax rules. Also, if you accept foreign hospitality without informing the MHA under Section 6 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), then there are penalty provisions,” he said.
Rijiju said Gandhi’s “unannounced” foreign visits were “numerous”.
“The issue that came to public attention recently regarding his sudden visit to Muscat without informing anyone… The Congress party has not made any statement on this issue,” he said.
“Whether it is a visit to Thailand or Vietnam, I think Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi should explain this. Why is he visiting all these places? There is no restriction on any MP visiting any place,” he said.
“However, you must inform who the people who invited you are and what kind of expenses these institutions and organizations outside India have made,” the Minister added.
