After Asking Indians to Avoid 'Unnecessary' Foreign Travel, Modi Plans 5-Nation Tour; Yes SIR in BJP's West Bengal; Unexplained Ceasefire Gave Pakistan a Diplomatic Escape
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May 11, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
As global oil prices surge and the rupee weakened to an all time low of 95.28 to the dollar, Prime Minister Modi has begun publicly urging austerity even as questions are raised over his own high-profile political travel – roadshows, overseas trips and political rallies, including an event at Somnath temple in Gujarat where jets from the Indian Air Force burned massive amounts of fuel in a display of aerial acrobatics. On Sunday, Modi called on ordinary Indians to conserve fuel, reduce their travel, make work-from-home arrangements and stop buying imported products in order to protect India’s foreign exchange reserves amid mounting pressure from rising crude prices linked to tensions in West Asia.
His comments prompted a massive stock market collapse, with panicky investors seeing Modi’s exhortations as a sign of tough times ahead. By afternoon, it was the government’s turn to panic. A press release was rushed out about how the Informal Group of Ministers on West Asia had said there was no need to worry:
“The IGoM was informed that the country is secure, and there is no shortage of any petroleum product, even as most other nations have taken emergency measures to dramatically reduce domestic consumption. India has 60 days of crude oil, 60 days of Natural Gas and 45 days of LPG rolling stock. The foreign exchange reserves stand at a comfortable $703 billion.”
Which of course begs the question of why Modi said what he did on Sunday.
The rupee fell sharply to a record low against the dollar as Brent crude crossed $103 a barrel, raising fears of inflation, a widening current account deficit and further depletion of reserves. Analysts noted that India’s forex reserves, which touched a record $728 billion in February, have already fallen to around $690.7 billion.
At the same time, Modi has continued extensive election-related travel, including rallies and roadshows across states, despite appealing to citizens to conserve fuel and foreign exchange, highlighting what critics see as a contradiction between public exhortation and political practice.
India added around 5.8 million new small and unincorporated businesses in 2025, taking the total to 79.2 million, according to the NSO’s ASUSE 2025 report. But despite this growth and 7.5 million new jobs, most enterprises remain financially fragile, with average daily earnings often below Rs 600 and workers earning less than minimum wages, reports Raju Sajwan.
After the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Indian Union Muslim league offered the support of their four MLAs to Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam on Saturday (the latter making a u-turn in doing so), taking his coalition’s strength to 121 MLAs-elect, governor Rajendra Arlekar – who had controversially insisted that the actor-politician prove his majority before he
