M Venkaiah Naidu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign tours a national duty,not secretive

Hyderabad, May 17: Taking a dig at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his foreign visits, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said Modi’s schedule is in public domain and not a secret. Defending Modi against Congress’ barbs over his “frequent” foreign tours, Naidu said they were meant to attract investments for India and the PM is undertaking the visits as part of his national duty. “Prime Minister is going around the world to get investments for India. It’s an international tour to attract investments. How can you criticise the prime minister’s foreign trips,” he told reporters here. Rahul, who has been aggressively pushing the farmers’ cause inside and outside the Parliament, had recently asked Modi to visit mandis (farm markets) instead of embarking on foreign tours.
In a veiled attack on the Congress vice-president over his sabbatical from active political life to an unknown destination earlier this year, Naidu said,“He (Modi) is doing it as a national duty. (With regard to) the prime minister where he has gone and what he is doing is known to all…But (in case of) some people (with regard to foreign trips) their things are not known to people.” Accusing the opposition of making issues out of non-issues by questioning Modi’s foreign visits, Naidu said, “They (accusations) will boomerang on the Congress party. That’s my advise to Congress party.”