Trudeau’s kurta-pyjama, ‘Jai Hind’ win hearts at India Day
Clad in a kurta-pyjama, Justin Trudeau made his maiden appearance at an event celebrating India’s Independence Day after he became Canada’s Prime Minister and won the crowd over by concluding his speech with “Jai Hind”.
While multiple events marked the 71st anniversary of India’s Independence and were held on the first Sunday following August 15, the India Day Unity Parade in Montreal was the one that drew the Prime Minister.
The reason for that was the route of the parade, which commenced at Avenue Ogilvy and ended at Parc Howard, fell within the constituency of Papineau that Trudeau represents in the House of Commons, the lower chamber of Parliament.
Trudeau also tweeted, “Home in my riding of Papineau for Indian Independence Day celebrations! Long live the friendship between our two countries.”
Talking about the PM’s presence, Surinder Kumar, one of the founders of India Canada Organisation (ICO) that hosts the annual parade, said: “He’s not a stranger to us. But this was a great honour for us. People were crazy for him. It was a good show.”
Marching alongside Trudeau was India’s high commissioner Vikas Swarup.
“It was wonderful to have the PM of Canada participate in an India Day Parade, spend the good part of almost two hours with the community, speak in very positive terms about the contributions Indo-Canadians are making to Canada and end his speech with ‘Jai Hind’. And he seems to have a fabulous collection of Indian kurtas,” Swarup said.