<p>Organisers of a US delegation to India who met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had canvassed for participants in the trip at prices ranging from $3,000 to $16,000, said a media report.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The business delegation includes four US members of the House of Representatives, all Republicans. <br /><br />The organisers had canvassed in the Indian American community for participants in the trip, according to a report published in Hi India, a South Asian newspaper from Chicago.<br /><br />The trip was sponsored by a political action committee (PAC), the National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI) founded by Shalabh Kumar, a Chicago businessman. The politicians leading the delegation are Marlin Stutzman, Cyntia Wiederspahn, Cathy Rodgers and Aaron Schock.<br /><br />An invitation circulated by NIAPPI in preparation for the trip said it was “limited to (an) elite group of American businesspersons”. <br /><br />The group has already met Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad and invited him to visit the US. On the schedule of an extensive trip is a stay at the Lake Palace in Udaipur, a visit to Karnataka as guest of the state government, a visit to the Taj Mahal, the tiger reserve at Ranthambore, a night at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and a dinner hosted by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. <br /><br />The cost options given in the invitation were: “Seven star trip” (business class travel, private air charter in India) $16,000 per person, “four star trip” (commercial travel in India with visits to the palace excluded) $10,000 per person, and economy option-with all travel and hotel expenses borne by the individual- $3,000 per person.<br /><br /> There also appears to be a controversy about the political action committees under which Kumar operates, according to the newspaper that is widely read in the South Asian community in the US Midwest. <br /><br />In 2012, it reported, he ran advertisements attacking Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a respected military veteran who lost both her legs in the Iraq war.</p>
<p>Organisers of a US delegation to India who met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had canvassed for participants in the trip at prices ranging from $3,000 to $16,000, said a media report.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The business delegation includes four US members of the House of Representatives, all Republicans. <br /><br />The organisers had canvassed in the Indian American community for participants in the trip, according to a report published in Hi India, a South Asian newspaper from Chicago.<br /><br />The trip was sponsored by a political action committee (PAC), the National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI) founded by Shalabh Kumar, a Chicago businessman. The politicians leading the delegation are Marlin Stutzman, Cyntia Wiederspahn, Cathy Rodgers and Aaron Schock.<br /><br />An invitation circulated by NIAPPI in preparation for the trip said it was “limited to (an) elite group of American businesspersons”. <br /><br />The group has already met Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad and invited him to visit the US. On the schedule of an extensive trip is a stay at the Lake Palace in Udaipur, a visit to Karnataka as guest of the state government, a visit to the Taj Mahal, the tiger reserve at Ranthambore, a night at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and a dinner hosted by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. <br /><br />The cost options given in the invitation were: “Seven star trip” (business class travel, private air charter in India) $16,000 per person, “four star trip” (commercial travel in India with visits to the palace excluded) $10,000 per person, and economy option-with all travel and hotel expenses borne by the individual- $3,000 per person.<br /><br /> There also appears to be a controversy about the political action committees under which Kumar operates, according to the newspaper that is widely read in the South Asian community in the US Midwest. <br /><br />In 2012, it reported, he ran advertisements attacking Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a respected military veteran who lost both her legs in the Iraq war.</p>