Justin Trudeau’s trip to India: a ‘facile, foolish fiasco’?
Canadian PM castigated at home and abroad over eight-day foreign visit
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been castigated over an official visit to India that has sparked controversy about his party’s alleged links to Sikh extremism.
Trudeau has previously stated that Canada supports only a “unified India”, but his “close links with the country’s robust Sikh community, among which many pro-independence groups operate, has overshadowed his trip”, says The Daily Telegraph.
The Washington Post’s Barkha Dutt goes a step further, describing Trudeau’s eight-day expedition as “an absolute fiasco”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“The trip from the outset was playing to a diaspora gallery back home, one in which he has been studiously ambiguous on the Khalistani ties of some of his Liberal Party’s Sikh Canadian supporters,” Vivek Dehejia, a professor at Carleton University, in Ottawa, told Dutt.
The threadbare itinerary during Trudeau’s visit, accompanied by his wife and three children, “created the impression that the excursion was more taxpayer-funded family vacation than serious business”, says John Ibbitson of Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
The Trudeaus’ decision to wear Indian rather than Western clothes during much of the trip raised eyebrows in the local press. Delhi-based news magazine Outlook dubbed their outfits “too Indian even for an Indian”.
Fashion faux pas aside, Trudeau’s trip took a much more serious turn when “it was revealed a convicted Sikh terrorist was on the invitation list for two engagements with the Canadian prime minister”, says The Daily Telegraph.
Jaspal Atwal, a pro-Khalistan separatist campaigning for an independent Sikh homeland in India, was pictured with the PM’s wife, Sophie, at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday and was initially on the guest list for a dinner in Delhi on Thursday.
“Obviously we take this situation extremely seriously,” Trudeau told reporters yesterday. “The individual in question never should have received an invitation. As soon as we found out, we rescinded the invitation immediately.”
“Trudeau’s love of the international spotlight, which served the government well in the past, has now turned against him, making him appear facile and foolish during his long Indian sojourn,” says The Globe and Mail’s Ibbitson.
But the PM may consider that a price worth paying if, as The Washington Post’s Shivan Vij claims, “for Trudeau, this trip is all about the Sikh vote in Canada”.
Indeed, the controversy over the trip “helps the Canadian leader with a voting bloc that he covets”, says The Atlantic’s Krishnadev Calamur. “Without having done or said anything overtly, or even tacitly, supportive of the Khalistan movement, Trudeau will have shown Sikh Canadians that his primary loyalty is to Canada and Canadians - not to what the Indian government might want or think.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Onion is having a very ironic laugh with Infowars
The Explainer The satirical newspaper is purchasing the controversial website out of bankruptcy
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'Rahmbo, back from Japan, will be looking for a job? Really?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What's next for electric vehicles under Trump?
Today's Big Question And what does that mean for Tesla's Elon Musk?
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Chimpanzees are dying of human diseases
Under the radar Great apes are vulnerable to human pathogens thanks to genetic similarity, increased contact and no immunity
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 24 February - 1 March
Puzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will mounting discontent affect Iran election?
Today's Big Question Low turnout is expected in poll seen as crucial test for Tehran's leadership
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Sweden clears final NATO hurdle with Hungary vote
Speed Read Hungary's parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden's accession to NATO
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published