PM Modi’s royal snub of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

The darling of the liberal intelligentsia, and the ‘popular’ PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau finally made his much-touted visit to India. He landed on the Indira Gandhi Airport only a day before, where he was duly received by Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. He has now proceeded towards Agra, where he will spend some time at the Taj Mahal, before embarking on a visit to the Golden Temple

But wait; are we not missing something here?

Yes, we are. Justin Trudeau has been received by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who is neither the PM of India, nor even a Cabinet Minister. He is presently the Minister of State for Agriculture in the Central Government. That comes in complete contrast to the warmth that PM Modi and his NDA govt. has generally displayed towards the visiting dignitaries, from the President of the United States to even the Prime Minister of Burma. Only a couple of weeks ago, when the heads of the 10 ASEAN states arrived in India, PM Modi personally went ahead to receive them at the airport.

Canadian observers haven’t missed this thing either:

PM Modi has been famous for breaking protocols in order to personally receive the visiting heads of states. So, if Justin Trudeau has received a royal snub, it is certainly not something worth ignoring. It’s certainly not what it looks like.

Ever since he has become the PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau has been the darling of the media all around the world. Be it his attractive personality, or his decision to include a diverse cabinet with more female representation, there is no criteria that PM Trudeau hasn’t met in order to appease the liberals, already distraught with the rise of assertive leaders like Modi, Netanyahu and above all, the current President of USA, Donald Trump.

While a PM of any independent nation should be judged on the basis of his administration, his skills as well as his leadership, ironically PM Trudeau is judged on neither of these parameters. The very media, who calls for acceptance of diversity in terms of looks, is drooling over the current PM only on the basis of his good looks. How revolutionary that is!

That’s not all, it has been a sort of a custom for most Canadian PMs to meet the CM of the state of Punjab while visiting the Golden Temple. However, given the hostility between the Canadian Defence Minister Harjeet Singh Sajjan and the incumbent Punjab CM, Captain [retd.] Amarinder Singh, who accused the former of being a Khalistani sympathizer, Mr. Trudeau has reportedly decided to skip this formality. He got a taste of his own medicine, when the CM of UP, Yogi Adityanath refused to receive him when he would visit the Taj Mahal, in complete contrast to the warmth Yogi had displayed towards the visiting PM of Israel, Major [retd.] Benjamin Netanyahu.

Besides, the current stance of the Canadian establishment is not very pleasing as well. Only a couple of weeks ago, the Indians woke up to the news, that the Canadian gurudwaras will not allow Indian officials visiting the country an entry into the same. This came soon after an ex CRPF commandant was refused an entry into Canada on the laughable grounds of ‘violation of human rights’, just because the commandant had once fought with the dreaded Maoists back home. In such a situation, welcoming the Canadian PM with immense warmth would be nothing less than suicidal in terms of diplomacy.

Only time will tell whether this royal snub of PM Trudeau by PM Modi was a sensible step or not, but we’re assured of one thing: PM Modi does choose his partners well, and Justin Trudeau is certainly not one of them