The Congress president, back from Italy just recently, is set to fly out again for a three-day trip to Singapore and Malaysia.
New Delhi: Days after facing criticism from the BJP and political observers for going abroad and being missing in action when his party was getting wiped out in elections in the northeast, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is all set to fly away again – this time to Singapore and Malaysia.
Rahul leaves on Wednesday for what will be the third instalment of his ‘global outreach’ trips. These visits involve interactions with the Indian diaspora as well as foreign business leaders. The first such trip was to the US last year, and the second took him to Bahrain this January.
Bad timing
The latest trip comes at a precarious time as a fresh set of electoral setbacks has plunged the Congress deeper into crisis. Not only has the Congress suffered a washout in Tripura and Nagaland, it has lost Meghalaya, a former bastion, despite winning the most seats.
Several fingers have been pointed at the party brass’ “indifference” to the three elections during the campaign and Rahul’s decision to stay away on results day didn’t help matters. The Congress chief was in Italy over the long Holi weekend to meet his maternal grandmother.
The Singapore-Malaysia trip also coincides with two working days of the ongoing Budget session of Parliament, where the Congress is seeking to corner the Modi government over the Nirav Modi-Punjab National Bank fraud case.
The itinerary
Among the highlights of his two-day Singapore trip are his meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and an address at the YPO Global Leadership Conference. YPO, formerly the Young Presidents’ Organisation, is a global platform for chief executives and young business leaders that, according to its website, has 25,000 members in over 130 countries.
In Malaysia, his engagements include a keynote address at an Indian Youth Conclave event in Brickfields, a Kuala Lumpur suburb known as little India.
Highlights in Singapore:
- A meeting with the business community
- Will deliver a lecture on ‘India at 70’ at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
- Dinner with the Singapore PM
In Malaysia:
- A meeting with Malaysian business leaders and chambers of commerce
- Will make keynote address at an Indian Youth Conclave event in Kuala Lumpur’s ‘little India’
- An interaction with 1,500 Malaysian Indians in Sentul