Justin Trudeau’s first official visit to India is generating plenty of publicity but for all the wrong reasons. The Canadian prime minister is halfway through his week-long trip, but he is yet to meet a single leader of the host government.
Diplomats say the cold reception is a public snub for his association with Sikh separatists back home.
He may catch up with Narendra Modi on Friday, eight days after arriving on his first official trip. But, the Indian prime minister has not even tweeted a welcome, leave alone the bear hug he offers to other world leaders.
Vivek Daheja from international think-tank IDFC said Trudeau seemed to be asking for it.
“It is no secret that on the Indian side they were not very keen on him visiting. There is no secret he wanted to come on 26 January that was sort of nixed and he came here kind of little bit later on a long visit that looks like a long page from the Lonely Planet with the family touring the usual spots with no prime minister or chief minister of UP or Gujarat so it is a very strange visit.”
“No one was at hand to greet Trudeau at Taj Mahal or during his trip to Modi’s home state Gujarat. K.C. Singh has never seen anything as this in his life as a career diplomat.”
“I don’t know who is responsible for structuring this visit. Normally, you do the official part first. You come into Delhi. You do the official part, hug or whatever kind of engagement you want and then do your wandering in India. In this case what is happening is they have put the official thing at the end of the India jamboree. I don’t know who did that. But that’s wrong. You should have done it the other way and dissipating that these issues will come up.”
Diplomats say the cold shoulder was Modi’s way of ticking off Trudeau for his soft approach to Sikh extremists, called Khalistanis.
A Canadian politician, Ruby Dhalla says, “It is very very unfortunate that prime minister Trudeau has been in the headlines for wrong reasons. Canada and India share great values of pluralism and democracy. And we have the Punjabi diaspora which has done phenomenally well. To come here and see such headlines is unfortunate because the trip was supposed to be about trade, about economy and really trying to work together to foster that trade relationship with an economic partnership agreement. But that unfortunately has not been the case.”
Trudeau tried to play down the embarrassing headlines and so did Sheshadri Chari, an ideologue of India’s ruling party.
“I don’t think this visit is any less important as far as the government of India is concerned. And there is a genuine feeling from both the sides to mend the fences. Of course, there had been some irritants in between but that does not mean we value his visit any less. Of course in a strategic term Canada plays a very important role, but not as important a rose as China and India relation should play or India and US relation should play.”
Trudeau’s topsy-turvy journey is coming under fire in Canada as well. His critics have lit the fire, branding the visit a “family vacation in India. Cliff Richard trails off.
