Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday called on Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong and met other senior leaders of the country.
During his three-day trip to Singapore and Malaysia, Rahul Gandhi will meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, besides interacting with the Indian community, and business leaders.
Gandhi, along with Congress leader Milind Deora and telecom entrepreneur Sam Pitroda, met Prime Minister Lee.
“Pleased to have met Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong this morning along with Sam Pitroda and Milind Deora,” Gandhi posted on Facebook.
Gandhi also took to Twitter saying,”I had a cordial meeting with the PM of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong earlier today. ”
I had a cordial meeting with the PM of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong earlier today.
Our discussions covered a wide range of topics concerning our countries.@leehsienloong pic.twitter.com/75nygu83nO
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 9, 2018
Always a pleasure to see @leehsienloong, Singapore’s Prime Minister. First met him in New Delhi in 2005 during the launch of the India-Singapore Parliamentary Forum, which @VivianBala & I founded & co-chaired, Deora tweeted.
Always a pleasure to see @leehsienloong, Singapore’s Prime Minister. First met him in New Delhi in 2005 during the launch of the India-Singapore Parliamentary Forum, which @VivianBala & I founded & co-chaired pic.twitter.com/1anM9kUb2v
— Milind Deora (@milinddeora) March 9, 2018
Gandhi also met Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
On Thursday, he began the Singapore leg of his visit with an address to Indian entrepreneurs. He also made a formal address at the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS).
I thank the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore for a lively discussion on #IndiaAt70 in which I emphasised the importance of pluralism, inclusiveness and dialogue as the foundation of our democracy. pic.twitter.com/nLZ3UPiDqy
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 8, 2018
However, Gandhi’s interaction at NUS raked up controversy on Friday after a man from the audience, who had posed a question to Congress chief, threatened to sue the party over a video of their interaction.
The man who asked the question is Prasenjit Basu, an economist and author of a book called ‘Asia Reborn.
Basu has alleged that the video is “classic fake-news” and is using my “image” to falsely advertise the politician.
He replied to Congress’ video on Twitter saying, “This is a classic fake-news video. You are using my image to falsely advertise your politician, showing a sequence of events that did not occur. Withdraw this false video, or prepare for prosecution in Singapore’s courts! “.
Rahul also visited the iconic INA memorial in Singapore and paid homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who unveiled in 1945 the monument that commemorates the “Unknown Warrior” of the Indian National Army.
Rahul Gandhi will be travelling to Malaysia where he will meet Razak and members of the Indian community.
Singapore has some 500,000 people of Indian-origin in a multi ethnic population of over 5.3 million.
(With agency inputs)