By IANS,
Dhaka : Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, arrived here Tuesday afternoon on a two-day visit amid tight security to see rural development projects in the country.
“She is the first high-profile Indian dignitary to visit Bangladesh since (Prime Minister Sheikh) Hasina’s new government came to power in early January,” Star Online said.
Her visit precedes that of Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee who is due here Monday on a day’s visit to discuss key bilateral and regional issues.
Priyanka is scheduled to meet Hasina at the latter’s residence Tuesday.
She is here at the invitation of BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in the world, with offices in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.
The 36-year-old Priyanka, who does not hold any government or party position, visited a BRAC-run rural school in Savar, 30 km outside the national capital.
Priyanka, a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in New Delhi, Wednesday will discuss with BRAC officials on how its education programme can be implemented in India and what type of assistance they can provide.
Before leaving Dhaka for home Wednesday afternoon, she will pay a courtesy call on BRAC founder and chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed.
Priyanka is being provided three-tier security.
Priyanka’s visit acquires political and diplomatic significance because she is daughter of the late former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and granddaughter of late premier Indira Gandhi, whose government played a key role in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971.
Priyanka’s brother, MP and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi came to Bangladesh on a similar visit in August last year. He interacted with the youth and rural development project volunteers.