COLOURFUL, classy, but snubbed
HALFWAY THROUGH TRIP TO INDIA, PM HAS YET TO MEET A SENIOR OFFICIAL
Despite putting on the style, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is getting what one Indian commentator described as the “royal snub.”
Since arriving in India on the weekend, Trudeau has not met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose bone- crushing handshakes and bear hugs as he greets world leaders are legendary. Indian media have noted that Modi has not even sent out a tweet about the visit of Trudeau, who was greeted at the airport on his arrival on Feb. 17 by India’s junior minister for agriculture.
The two leaders are only due to meet on Friday.
But the apparent snub has attracted headlines worldwide.
CNN noted, “Though the Canadian leader is more than halfway through a weeklong trip, he has yet to meet with a single senior member of the Indian government.” In similar vein, the Hindustan Times, reported, “A veteran Indian diplomat said in his long experience with bilateral visits, he had never experienced a trip of this nature, where the visiting dignitary spent so little time in official engagements with counterparts in the Indian government.” The diplomat wanted to remain anonymous so as not to appear “churlish,” said the paper.
And in the Washington Post, New Delhi journalist Shivam Vij — who described it as a royal snub — wrote a piece under the headline, “Why India is being really rude to Justin Trudeau.”
It is the latest foreign misfortune for the prime minister. Of late, Trudeau’s foreign forays have not shown much success with visits to China and Japan being much criticized, especially over the pushing of the Liberals’ “progressive” agenda, which has hampered trade talks.
In response to reports about the flimsy itinerary and the fact that Trudeau’s entire family has accompanied him on the trip, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre cheekily wished Trudeau “another wonderful vacation.”
Speaking to reporters after arriving in India, Trudeau said it was nice “to come full circle” and bring his family to India, having joined his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, on a similar trip in 1983.
Trudeau and his family were photographed wearing traditional Indian dress during a visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s home in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which is Modi’s home state. Eyebrows were raised that Modi didn’t accompany the Trudeaus on that leg of the trip and that the family was often the only ones wearing the traditional garb in photos.
However, the Trudeaus have been praised for their dress sense with the Indian Express saying, “Justin Trudeau’s India wardrobe is classy, colourful and everything we’d expected it to be.”
“The beautiful, photogenic Trudeaus went to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, where they were welcomed not by the provincial chief minis- ter, not even a junior minister, but by district officials,” wrote Vij.
“There seems to be no end to the Indian snubbing of the Canadians, even as the Trudeaus are trying their best to disarm the Indians with a charm offensive.”
The Indian journalist ascribed the snub to the issue of Sikhs.
“India has often accused Canada of sheltering Sikh separatists. Sikhs in Canada form a voting bloc for Trudeau, so much so that he even attended a Khalsa Day parade organized by a radical Gurudwara, or Sikh temple, in Toronto. Some Sikh Gurudwaras in Canada have also barred the entry of Indian diplomats,” he wrote.
Two years ago, Trudeau even bragged that his own cabinet had more Sikhs in it than Modi’s cabinet. For that, he was criticized and warned about “stepping on the minefield of the extremely sensitive domestic Indian politics and damaging bilateral relations with this key country,” by Ramesh Thakur, an expert on international affairs.
Commenting in The Post, Vij wrote, “For Trudeau, this trip is all about the Sikh vote in Canada.
“Ironically, Trudeau’s visit was meant to mend fences with India, given that India has made clear its disapproval of Trudeau’s appeasement of Sikh separatists. It’s the sort of thing, India fears, that could reignite Sikh extremism in Indian Punjab.
“Trudeau has to choose between not reigniting Sikh separatism in India and keeping some of his voters happy. He can’t have both. If India were to start supporting Quebec separatists, it can’t imagine that Canada would have good relations with India. It works both ways.”
In December, Trudeau left China without a hoped- for agreement to launch freetrade talks. An insistence on prioritizing provisions related to gender, Indigenous issues, labour and the environment appears to have been a hurdle too high for China.
“China always maintains that non-trade issues should not be brought in the FTA negotiation no matter in what kind of name, for it is not conducive to talks on the basis of equality and fairness,” said the Chinese embassy’s spokesman, Xiaozhong Zhu, after Trudeau’s visit.
Canada also ruffled feathers when it balked at an agreement to save the Trans- Pacific Partnership, an 1 1- nation t rade deal anchored by Japan. After Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Trudeau in Vietnam, the Japanese specified that a planned TPP summit had been postponed because t he Canadian leader had said he was not ready to endorse an outline agreement reached at the ministerial level.
In Vietnam, Trudeau’s decision not to attend a meeting of leaders of the 11 countries negotiating the trade deal “grated on Japanese sensitivities,” Sadaaki Numata, formerly Japan’s top diplomat i n Canada and an adviser to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Japan, said shortly afterwards.
“The prime minister (Abe) was quite upset, from what I understand,” Shujiro Urata, a trade expert at Waseda University in Tokyo, reportedly said. “And I think he has a reason to be moody.”
On Tuesday, Trudeau announced a $1 billion reciprocal trade agreement, which will see Indian companies investing $ 250 million in Canada and Canadian companies investing $ 750 million in India.
Trudeau said the deal, which was signed after the prime minister met with six prominent Indian business people, will create more than 5,000 jobs in Canada. Trudeau also tweeted photos from a roundtable in Mumbai about women in business on Tuesday, saying it was an “insightful session.”
TRUDEAU’S VISIT WAS MEANT TO MEND FENCES WITH INDIA.