Rahul Gandhi’s first official overseas assignment as AICC general secretary will take him to New York. He will accompany his mother on her four-day trip.
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi’s first official overseas assignment as AICC general secretary will take him to New York. He will accompany his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on her four-day trip to the United States.
She is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on October 2, which will be declared as the World Non-violence Day by the international body.
Sonia Gandhi will also deliver a speech at a meeting of the Indian Overseas Congress in New York. Rahul Gandhi is not listed as a speaker at any of her engagements, but is likely to be present at both meetings, and during her interaction with other leaders at the UN. Although nobody in the Congress is willing to speak publicly about the trip, the significance of Rahul Gandhi accompanying his mother to the US is not lost on anybody.
It is yet another attempt to display him to the world as the leader-in-waiting. The Congress president will also be accompanied by Anand Sharma, the minister of state in the ministry of external affairs. In New York, Sonia Gandhi will be joined by foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi.
Sonia Gandhi had addressed the UN General Assembly once before, in June 2001. Her speech had focused on concerns relating to AIDS. On that trip, she had also addressed the Asia Society, Indian Congressional Caucus, and a gathering of top entrepreneurs organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
In addition, she held extended meetings with Colin Powell, who was the US secretary of state then, and his deputy Condoleezza Rice. But the present visit is business-like and no official meeting has been scheduled with anyone in the US administration. Sonia Gandhi will not travel out of New York either.
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