New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received 65 gifts worth ₹ 3.11 lakh during his foreign visits in the past ten months since assuming charge last year, an RTI query revealed.

On 19 February, Modi received gold and diamond studded cufflinks, valued at ₹ 75,000, by a host country. The PM was also twice given tea sets and books as gifts. He also was presented a statue of Lord Buddha, whose messages he has invoked in several of his speeches abroad, said the foreign ministry in response to an RTI query.

The gift items received by the PM also included porcelain dishes, replicas of temples, paintings, carpets, photographs, ornaments among others.

The government also said that former PM Manmohan Singh had from 2010 to June 2013 received gifts worth ₹ 83.72 lakh during foreign tours. In 2010 he was presented with a sword worth ₹ 20.91 lakh, besides ornaments valued at ₹ 48.93 lakh. A table-clock, a pen, a prayer mat, a statue of Lord Pashupatinath and a box made of gold are among other gifts Singh received during his UPA tenure.

The foreign ministry provided information on the gifts received on foreign tours by the President, the Vice President, members of Parliament, and government officials during the period between year 2010 to June 2013.

Details for the period between July 2013 to March 2015 has been mentioned on the ministry’s website, it said.

From the year 2010 to June 2013, UPA chairman and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had received gifts worth ₹ 3.84 lakh during foreign tours, which included bracelets worth ₹ 2 lakh. Besides, she was presented with a pashmina shawl, rugs, a purse, tea-sets, a photo frame made of silver among other things.

Meanwhile, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has received gifts worth ₹ 4.83 lakh which includes many sarees. Besides, ornaments, paintings, dinner-sets, a wrist watch, pens and silk scarfs, china dishes, a photo frame, a brass statue of Naag devi, a Buddha idol made of bronze, a metal dragon statue, tablet computer, candle-stand were also presented to her during official tours.

The RTI reply also said that gifts valuing more than ₹ 5000 recieved by government officials representing India abroad are deposited to the treasury of foreign ministry.

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