India, May 11 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, doubling down on his calls for austerity in light of a global impact of the US-Iran war, spoke against Indians holding destination weddings abroad.

"The moment holidays begin, children are handed tickets to go abroad," he said at an event in Gujarat, speaking in Hindi, "The trend nowadays is to travel overseas, often for destination weddings."

"There are many people here who do not send me invitations anymore. They used to send them in the past because they would hold their weddings abroad," he said with a smile, pointing towards the large number of community leaders present on stage at the inauguration of a hostel built by the Patidar/Patel community. "But now they are stopping that practi...