It's been two days now that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have been in India on their first state visit but if the cold reception they have been accorded so far is any indication, it is clear the Modi government has made its anger clear with what has been Trudeau's less-than-ambiguous support for the Khalistan movement clear, India Today reported Monday.
New Delhi, (Pakistan Point News - 19th Feb, 2018) It's been two days now that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have been in India on their first state visit but if the cold reception they have been accorded so far is any indication, it is clear the Modi government has made its anger clear with what has been Trudeau's less-than-ambiguous support for the Khalistan movement clear, India Today reported Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose foreign policy is marked by an emphasis on forming a personal bond with global leaders and who is known to have walked (or driven) the extra mile to personally receive them when they come to India, gave Trudeau a massive snub by sending a junior minister to receive him.
When Trudeau landed in New Delhi on Saturday night, he was welcomed by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer's Welfare Gajendra S Shekhawat, a much more junior official than even the ranks of say, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, or any of her deputies - Gen VK Singh or MJ Akbar. On Sunday, as the Trudeaus went to Agra to visit the iconic Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath did not bother to receive them.
Modi has been uncharacteristically unenthusiastic so far in his reception of Trudeau. The Indian Prime Minister has not posted any welcome tweet on his Twitter handle so far, a courtesy he normally reserves for all visiting dignitaries. Moreover, Trudeau is in Gujarat today. But Modi did not plan a joint trip with him to his home state, an honour he has accorded so far to leaders from the US, Israel, China and Japan. Moreover, there are no clear indications yet whether or not Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, whose annoyance with the Canadian government is well recorded, will host Trudeau in the holy city of Amritsar on Wednesday when the visiting dignitaries will be at the Golden Temple, the holiest of the Sikh shrines.
When Justin Trudeau was elected Canada's Prime Minister in 2015, he inducted four Indian faces - all Sikhs - in his multi-cultural Cabinet. In a first, the plum portfolio of Canada's Defence Minister was given to a Sikh, Harjit Singh Sajjan. It soon emerged that some of the Trudeau's colleagues in the Canadian Cabinet allegedly had ties with Khalistan supporters. Trudeau himself attended a Khalsa Day event in Toronto where Khalistan flags and the portrait of former Khalistani militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were displayed. The Ontario Assembly, dominated by Trudeau's Liberal Party, passed a resolution last year condemning the "genocide" of Sikhs in India in 1984.
