CAPT WILL MEET CANADIAN PM
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced that he will meet Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on his visit to Punjab on February 21, ending days of uncertainty. Amarinder’s announcement on Twitter, followed by a statement from his office, came days after the Canadian media reported that Trudeau, who is on a visit to India from February 17 to 23 and is to visit Amritsar on February 21, will not meet Amarinder. Trudeau and his family are scheduled to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, considered the central shrine of the Sikhs, a community which, within the larger Indo-Canadian community, plays a significant role in the country’s power circles, reflected in the fact that the Canada has four Sikh ministers.
AMRITSAR: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants his Wednesday visit to the Golden Temple, among the holiest shrines of Sikhs, to be kept simple, so that he can enjoy the spiritual atmosphere, said Roop Singh, chief secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), after a conversation with a team of Canadian officials who made a review visit on Monday.
“We’ve been told by the Canadian authorities that Justin Trudeau doesn’t want to be accompanied by anyone except his family members — wife and three children — once he enters the shrine complex. Actually, he wants everything going on as normal. He wants to feel the spirituality that he has heard about,” said the SGPC official.
He added, though, “Still, we have to make proper security arrangements inside the shrine, and we seek cooperation of the devotees too.”
BADALS, LONGOWAL TO WELCOME HIM
SGPC officials said that only three persons will welcome the Canadian PM at the entrance plaza of the shrine — former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is president of the Shiromani Akali Dal that controls the elected SGPC; his wife, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal; and SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal. Two SGPC officials — a secretary-level staffer and the other from the information office — have been authorised to guide Trudeau.
He is later to meet CM Capt Amarinder Singh at a local hotel.
Security across the city was upped. On Monday, police officials led by commissioner SS Srivastava visited the shrine and its surroundings. Also, beautification is going on in the city, especially on the roads that Trudeau is to take. Painters were seen decorating with artwork the walls of Bhandari Bridge.