One hallmark of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first year has been his punishing travel schedule; Mr. Modi visited 18 countries over 54 days, and 17 Indian states over 63 days. That’s 117 days on the road in all. There’s no doubt that this is substantially more than his predecessor; Manmohan Singh visited five countries in his first year in office, and made 14 trips in the first year of his second stint in office.
Here's a map of all the speeches outside Delhi Dr. Singh gave in his ten years as PM.
Apart from mere travel, what’s also interesting are the speeches given by the two leaders, and where. Mr. Modi gave over 205 speeches in his first year (pictured in the map below) as opposed to Dr. Singh who gave 138 in his first year in office, and 144 in the first year of the UPA-II. In all Dr. Singh gave 1348 speeches in his ten years in office, averaging 135 speeches a year.
However there are also remarkable similarities in the destinations the two leaders have spoken at, perhaps reflecting something of a continuum of domestic and international priorities that political rhetoric does not usually account for. Explore the two leaders’ speeches with this interactive. All data is from the Prime Minister’s website.
