'Who paid?' BJP fires at Rahul Gandhi over foreign trips 'five times' his declared income

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday mounted a sharp attack on Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, making public details of his 54 foreign trips over the past 22 years and questioning the source of funding for travel expenditure.

The BJP claimed that the spend on these trips ran to nearly Rs 60 crore which is roughly five times his declared income for the period.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, party national spokesperson Sambit Patra presented what he described as a list of Gandhi’s overseas visits, and alleged that there was a glaring mismatch between the Lok Sabha LoP’s disclosed earnings and the money spent on foreign travel.

“LoP Rahul Gandhi has been in an elected position for nearly 22 years. In these years, he has travelled abroad multiple times. Officially, the declared foreign trips amount to 54. These tours are public, but their funding is not public,” Patra said.

Citing Gandhi’s income tax disclosures, Patra alleged that the Congress leader’s aggregate income between 2013-14 and 2022-23 stood at approximately Rs 11 crore, against which expenditure of nearly Rs 60 crore on foreign trips had been incurred.

“We have the details of Rahul Gandhi's income from 2013-14 to 2022-23. In these ten years, his income was around Rs 11 crore. How did he manage to spend Rs 60 crore on foreign trips? Who is funding him? If any foreign company has financed these trips, did he follow the required regulations,” he asked.

Patra raised the spectre of legal violations, invoking both income tax laws and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. “The question that arises is: when he travels abroad, is the funding being done by the Government of India or by some foreign agency? If there is foreign funding, then provisions under FCRA apply. If it is personal funding, then it must be declared under income tax laws,” he said.

The BJP also alleged that the CRPF had written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in September last year flagging what it described as six “undeclared foreign trips” undertaken in violation of the yellow book of the SPG protection protocol.

Patra further questioned the motive behind Gandhi’s visit to Muscat, Oman on May 3 this year, alleging that no public programme had been declared and no itinerary disclosed.

The BJP’s charges came against the backdrop of Gandhi having recently criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to citizens to avoid foreign travel for a year as part of a series of austerity appeals.