If your week was less than fun, spare a thought for Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Prime Minister’s seven-day visit to India went down like an undercooked biriyani on the subcontinent.
When he landed in New Delhi last Saturday, Trudeau was greeted on the tarmac, not by the Prime Minister or Foreign Minister but by the junior minister for agriculture and farmers’ welfare. Other world leaders, including Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, have been given a personal welcome by Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi, a savvy social media user, failed even to note Trudeau’s arrival on Twitter, though on the same day he found time to tweet about plans to unveil a new shipping container terminal. He did not acknowledge Trudeau until five days later and only met him the day before the Canadian PM and his family were to return home.
Why were the Indians so frosty in their reception? They suspect Trudeau’s government of private sympathy for the Khalistani separatist movement, which wants to form a breakaway Sikh state in Punjab.
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