Rahul to visit Dhaka’s suburban areas, Grameen Bank

“Dr Yunus is accompanying him as Rahul Gandhi visits our microcredit programmes in (suburban) Singair and Manikganj,” Grameen Bank official Lamia Moeshed told PTI.

Rahul evaded a media exposure during his visit to BRAC projects on Saturday in suburban Gazipur but mixed freely with rural people and even walked to a roadside village teashop and asked for a cup of tea, puzzling the security men.

Witnesses said elite-anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Special Security Force (SSF) and Indian security team could not stop him from interacting with common people.

Attired in a short-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers, he saw for himself the struggle of a few families to pull themselves out of poverty with BRAC micro-credit in several villages of Gazipur. He also witnessed village organizational meetings of women, primary children’s education, mass library and women health care programme and adolescent centre.

Son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul listened to the stories of how the village women came out of the poverty cycle after receiving small loans and training on farming, fishing and cattle rearing.