More follies from PM’s India vacay

There were even more gaffes on that infamous trip to India last month by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau than previously reported.

As if the widely denigrated extended photo-op tour, and the inclusion of a convicted terrorist on some invitation lists, wasn’t bad enough, the National Post has learned of a ruckus at the gates of the Canadian High Commissioner’s residence during the tour and further reports of MPs in the prime minister’s entourage posing with a former politician with unsavoury connections. Beyond that, the trip was a complete disappointment from the perspective of some of those keen to make business connections — “just a mess,” says a disappointed businessman who was there.

The atmosphere at the reception at the residence of Nadir Patel, the Canadian High Commissioner to India, was more like “spring break” than a formal diplomatic party, according to one attendee, who said there was so much heavy drinking that the bar ran out of Crown Royal within the first hour.

Two eyewitnesses invited to the reception, both of whom requested their names not be used, say there was also a brouhaha at the gates of the residence, when a group of young Sikh men poured out of a couple of cars and charged past those in the lineup.

One eyewitness says greeting the party-crashers was Brampton, Ont., MP Raj Grewal and at least one of his assistants.

The eyewitness, who was near the front of the line and knows Grewal by sight, said the MP was arguing with an RCMP officer, who grew visibly upset as Grewal apparently insisted the men be let in.

In an email, Grewal flatly denied being embroiled in a commotion at the gate, and said he’d not helped anyone enter the party without an invitation. “Guests at the reception had invitations and were processed at registration,” he said last week.

The eyewitness account was supported by a second eyewitness, who was also in the line, though this man didn’t know the person who appeared to be helping the group.

“At least some if not all didn’t have invitations,” the first eyewitness said. “It was the MP and his friends who were pushing (the issue).

“There were Indians in the lineup, people from different embassies. It was really upsetting.”

There were apparently about 1,000 guests at the reception, a standup affair held on the lawns of the residence.

The National Post has also learned that Surrey, B.C., MP Randeep Sarai and Winnipeg MP Kevin Lamoureux posed for pictures with a former Punjab state cabinet minister who is under investigation for his role in an international drug cartel. (Sarai, recall, is already embroiled in controversy for his role in convicted terrorist Jaspal Atwal attending events on the trip.)

Former Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia was first implicated four years ago in connection with alleged money laundering and links with Canadian drug dealers.

Majithia’s name came up in statements from former wrestler-turned-police superintendent-turned alleged drug lord Jagdish Singh Bhola, an accused drug trafficker.

Since then, two others accused in the drug-andmoney-laundering probe have named Majithia as someone who provided “vehicles and gunmen.”

Early last month, both the Hindustan Times and Indian Express reported that the high court directed the Punjab government “to examine and take action” on the report of a special task force that had looked into Majithia’s alleged role, saying the officers who probed Majithia “need to be protected.”

Majithia, who has repeatedly denied any drug in- volvement, posted pictures of his meeting with Sarai and Lamoureux on his Twitter feed on Feb. 22, noting the three “discussed ways & means for more people to people interaction to strengthen ties between Punjab & Canada.”

Sarai told the Post in an email he was “unaware” Majithia would be at the meeting in Pakhoke, a village near Amritsar, where he’d been invited, he said, by a family member.

“Mr. Majithia happened to be there,” he said, as well as several hundred villagers. The meeting was one of a handful of events he had in the area, Sarai said.

Lamoureux didn’t reply to several Post emails over two days, his Ottawa office phone line was full and unabletotakemessages,anda message left with his riding office in Winnipeg went unreturned.

More generally, the first eyewitness said, there was little actual business conducted on the trip.

But for two seminars organized by the India-Canada Business Forum, he said, there was little in the way of traditional work or networking opportunities.

“It was just a mess,” he said. “It wasn’t focused.”

He said the missed opportunity was in Punjab, where with “four ministers and 14 MPs from Punjab background” present, there was a chance “to leave a legacy for the Punjab … but it was as though a photo op was sufficient.”

The official delegation consisted of six cabinet ministers, a handful of diplomats and bureaucrats, and an astonishing 22 staff from Trudeau’s office.

One of them, press secretary Chantal Gagnon, said the MPs who joined the official party are responsible for their own costs.