It is part of the Congress president’s political outreach programme, according to reports in India’s media.

PTI reported that he would address the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, on March 8, and meet representatives of the Indian community there.

Gandhi, 48, is scheduled to meet Malaysian business leaders on Saturday. He is also expected to speak at an Indian Youth Conclave event in Brickfields, apart from meeting about 1,500 Malaysian Indians at the HGH Convention Centre in Sentul.

According to PTI, the programme is being organised by the All India Congress Committee’s Overseas Cell headed by technocrat Sam Pitroda, who helped former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi lead the IT revolution in India.

Pitroda had earlier successfully organised Gandhi’s visits to the US and West Asia.

Other India media reports suggest that Gandhi’s overseas venture to meet the Indian diaspora is an exercise parallel to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s routine foreign engagements.

Gandhi is reported to be facing a tough battle to turn around the fortunes of the party which once held the country in its firm grip.

His visit to Malaysia and Singapore comes at a time when he is being criticised for taking a vacation in Italy the day after assembly election results failed to produce a victory for the party in three northeastern states – Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.