Caravan News
NEW DELHI — Congress party president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address Indian expatriates at Dubai International Cricket Stadium at Sports City during his two-day maiden visit to the UAE.
Rahul will address the Indian community in UAE at 4pm on January 11 at the cricket stadium which has the capacity of 25,000. Congress president, as part of his international outreach, will be reaching Dubai same day.
Secretary of All India Congress Committee Himanshu Vyas told local daily Gulf News, “we have got permission from the authorities and we are expecting a sizeable crowd.”
“The theme of the stadium event is ‘Gandhi 150 years: The idea of India’,” he said. Earlier in the day on January 11, Gandhi will attend a luncheon hosted by Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC) and is expected to interact with a group of students, Vyas said.
Gandhi will be the second Indian leader to attend a community event since August 2015 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a packed crowd at the stadium during his official visit.
On January 12, Rahul Gandhi will visit Abu Dhabi where he will visit Shaikh Zayed Mosque, and will also attend a meeting organised by Indian Business and Professional Group and an event organised by India Social & Cultural Centre (ISC) in the evening.
“We are holding a luncheon meeting in Abu Dhabi for 200 people and also there is a public meeting at ISC in the evening,” Dr B.R. Shetty, chairman of the group said.
Dr Azad Moopen, Chairman & Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare in UAE, welcoming the scheduled visit of Rahul said: “Indians in UAE are looking forward to the imminent visit by Mr Rahul Gandi… Of late, he has become a mature and seasoned politician who is addressing the crucial issues facing the country. His impeccable integrity and highly secular outlook endears him to many, who see him as a future Prime Minsiter of India. He is very well placed to strengthen the strategic relationship between India and UAE nurtured by his father, grand mother and great grand father who were all past Prime Ministers of India,” reports Gulf News.
Gandhi’s tour will only be the second high-profile visit of a Congress president leader in 37 years after his grandmother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who came in 1981.
The visit will be closely watched by Indian expatriates as Gandhi’s party has recently won three major states and has emerged as a major challenger to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of parliamentary elections in May 2019.
( Based on Gulf News report)
