A helpful travel advisory for ordinary Indians — from a man currently packing his bags
On May 10, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood before a large gathering in Hyderabad and delivered a heartfelt, patriotic appeal to the 1.4 billion citizens of India.
“For at least one year,” he said, with great solemnity, “we should resolve to postpone foreign visits.”
The nation was moved. The nation was inspired. The nation reached for its passport — to lock it in a drawer, naturally, out of Desh Bhakti.
And then, approximately 24 hours later, the Ministry of External Affairs quietly published a press release.
“Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to the United Arab Emirates on May 15, 2026.”
Oh. And also the Netherlands. And Sweden. And Norway. And Italy.
Five countries. Six days. May 15 to 20.
Announced on May 11 — the very morning after the “please don’t travel abroad” speech.
The Itinerary India Was Not Supposed to Have
Let us take a moment to appreciate the sheer ambition of this travel schedule, which apparently does not drain foreign exchange because — well, reasons.
Stop 1: UAE — To meet His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and discuss “energy cooperation.” You know, the oil that costs $120 a barrel and is destroying India’s forex. Perfectly logical place to start a trip about saving forex.
Stop 2: Netherlands — To meet King Willem-Alexander and PM Rob Jetten. To discuss semiconductors, green hydrogen, and defence. Also, the Netherlands is “India’s 4th largest investor with cumulative FDI of USD 55.6 billion.” Which is lovely. But also: Amsterdam is not Goa.
Stop 3: Sweden — To attend the European Round Table for Industry alongside the President of the European Commission. In Gothenburg. Which, last we checked, is not a domestic tourism destination that Modi was urging Indians to explore.
Stop 4: Norway — For the 3rd India-Nordic Summit. The first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Norway in 43 years. Historically significant. Also, Oslo is not Varanasi.
Stop 5: Italy — To meet PM Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella. To discuss trade, defence, clean energy, and people-to-people ties. Rome, presumably, is not on the list of Indian destinations Modi recommended for destination weddings.
Five countries in six days. Truly, no one conserves foreign exchange quite like this.
In Fairness (We Are Required to Say This)
To be genuinely fair — because sarcasm should be accurate — there is an obvious difference between a Prime Minister’s official diplomatic travel and an Indian family’s vacation to Bangkok.
Modi’s visits are state-level diplomatic engagements, not leisure holidays. The UAE leg alone involves energy cooperation discussions at a time when India desperately needs to secure stable oil supply chains. The Nordic summit covers green technology, supply chains, and billions in investment that flows into India. These are not the same as buying a gold necklace or booking a resort in Bali.
The government would — and should — make that distinction clearly.
But Here’s the Thing
Nobody is arguing that the Prime Minister should cancel diplomatic summits to prove a point.
The problem is the timing, the framing, and the optics.
When a leader asks 1.4 billion people to make a personal sacrifice — to skip their honeymoon, postpone their daughter’s destination wedding, forgo the one foreign holiday they’ve saved for all year — and then the very next morning his ministry announces a six-day, five-country international tour, the message that lands is not “we are all in this together.”
The message that lands is considerably less inspiring.
Voluntary appeals to citizens require moral authority. Moral authority requires at least the appearance of shared sacrifice. And shared sacrifice is significantly harder to sell when the person asking you to stay home is, at that exact moment, finalising his hotel bookings in Oslo.
A Revised Travel Advisory for Indian Citizens
In the spirit of national service, here is an updated, Modi-inspired guide to international travel in 2026:
You should NOT travel abroad if: You are an ordinary Indian citizen earning in rupees, planning a vacation, honeymoon, or destination wedding that will spend foreign exchange on hotels, flights, and shopping.
You absolutely SHOULD travel abroad if: You are the Prime Minister, visiting five countries in six days to discuss energy, semiconductors, green hydrogen, defence, trade, investment, blue economy, AI, the Arctic, and “people-to-people ties.” This is different. This is important. This saves forex.
Rule of thumb: If your trip involves a bilateral summit, it is diplomacy. If your trip involves a beach, it is a drain on the national economy. Plan accordingly.
What India Actually Needs
Jokes aside — and there are plenty of jokes here, freely available at no cost to the foreign exchange reserves — India’s forex challenge is real. The West Asia war is real. The pressure on the rupee is real. Modi’s underlying concern is legitimate.
But the credibility of any voluntary appeal rests entirely on the consistency of the person making it. Citizens notice when the rules apply differently at the top. They notice when austerity is for the masses and diplomacy is for the ministers. They notice when the sacrifice is asked of the many while the few board the government aircraft to the Netherlands.
Indians are willing to be patriotic. History has shown this, repeatedly and genuinely.
They just prefer their patriotism to come without a side of irony.
This blog is satirical commentary on public events based on official government sources. All diplomatic visit details are drawn directly from the Ministry of External Affairs press release dated May 11, 2026.
