Junior agriculture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who as per protocol is equal to a “parliamentary secretary in Canada”, was sent to the airport to receive Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It’s been two days now that the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family have been in India on their first state visit. But if the cold reception they have been accorded so far is any indication, it is clear the Indian government has made its discomfort with what has been Trudeau’s less-than-ambiguous support for the Khalistan movement clear.
The Khalistan movement is an indigenous movement in India that demands a separate homeland for the Sikhs.
Narendra Modi, whose foreign policy is marked by an emphasis on forming a personal bond with global leaders and who is known to have walked (or driven) the extra mile to personally receive them when they come to India, reportedly gave Trudeau a massive snub by sending a junior minister to receive him.
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When Trudeau landed in New Delhi on Saturday night, he was welcomed by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Gajendra S Shekhawat, a much more junior official than even the ranks of say, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, or any of her deputies – Gen VK Singh or MJ Akbar.
It should, however, be remembered here that when Modi visited Canada in 2016, he was not received at the Toronto airport by Trudeau.
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Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and their brood of three visited the Taj Mahal yesterday while Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath was nowhere in sight. A scant month ago, when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Taj, the UP CM personally showed him around. But all the Trudeaus got were the Agra district magistrate and some other local administrators.
