Rahul Gandhi reaches Dhaka

Dhaka welcomed Rahul Gandhi, one of the Congress central general secretaries and members of Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament), with a tight security measure at 3:30 pm of Bangladesh standard time. Mr. Gandhi, the son of Indian former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, arrived in Dhaka by a special flight in a five days personal visit.

During the five-day visit, Rahul is keen to have some immediate knowledge of the development activities of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Centre (BRAC), the largest NGO in Bangladesh and also the micro-finance project of the Gramin Bank, known as the ‘bank of poor’.

The 38-year-old leader is interested to learn the success stories of the projects undertaken by the Bank and also the possibilities of replicating the same in India, especially in Gandhi family’s own constituencies Rae Bareli and Amethi. The importance of such project can be best understood with the fact that a large portion of Indian population are living in rural areas with much dependency on agriculture and other farm activities.

The young law maker of India was invited to Dhaka by BRAC management. The organisation is engaged in several developmental activities including education, micro-finance, community health, women’s empowerment, protection of human rights etc.

Owing to his high profile personality, the visit was in the focal point of local press and most of the dailies published news on his visit.

Political analysts in Bangladesh said that after the high profile visit of Indian Army chief, the visit of Rahul Gandhi has a very positive influence on the bilateral relation of Bangladesh and India, though it is very personal.

Analysts also hope that as a leader of the party in power and of course for his pleasant personality he could do many things for strengthening Bangladesh-India bilateral relations further.