Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will embark on a six-day, three-city tour of the US on May 30 during which he will have interactions with the NRI community, business leaders and the media. He will have several such engagements in San Francisco, Washington DC and New York.
But a last-minute legal hurdle is giving Congress moments of anguish. A court in Delhi is due to give its decision on Friday Rahul’s plea seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the issuance of a ‘regular passport’ after surrendering his diplomatic passport following his disqualification as an MP.
As per his itinerary, Rahul will spend two days each in San Francisco, Washington DC and New York. On May 30, he will have an interaction with the NRI community at the Santa Clara Marriott in Santa Clara.
Rahul will deliver a talk at Stanford University in Silicon Valley on the topic “The New Global Equilibrium” on May 31. The talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business is organized by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
The former president of Congress plans to hold separate meetings with business leaders and a group of artists, though he also plans to do some media interviews.
Rahul will be in Washington on June 1 and 2. On June 1, he will speak at the National Press Club on the future of Indian democracy, freedom of expression and sustainable and inclusive economic growth. An interview with Fareed Zakaria is being planned for CNN. Rahul will also attend a dinner hosted by Indian-American businessman Frank Islam, attended by business leaders, senators and congressmen.
In New York, Rahul will address Indian Americans on June 4 at the Javits Center, besides holding a meeting with members of the Overseas Indian Congress across America.
Rahul’s passport request
Rahul approached a Delhi court on Tuesday seeking an NOC for the issuance of an “ordinary passport” after surrendering his diplomatic passport following his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP in March following his conviction in a defamation case.
While hearing his plea, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Vaibhav Mehta observed that the right to travel is a fundamental right and the courts have not placed any restrictions on Rahul’s movements,
that he had traveled abroad several times without having to obtain a permit.
At the same time, ACMM Mehta said that former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has the right to file a reply to the Congress leader’s request. Rahul is an accused in the National Herald case in which Swamy is the complainant. The court has asked Swamy to file his reply by Friday. The ACMM noted that while it granted bail to Rahul in December 2015, the court had not placed any restrictions on his travel and Swamy’s plea for the imposition of restrictions was rejected.
