Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has repeatedly broken protocols while receiving heads of foreign countries, did not go to receive him at the airport himself when Trudeau and his family arrived in Delhi for a seven-day trip. Instead, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Affairs received him at the airport and his meeting with PM Modi is scheduled to take place on 23rd February. Pointing it out, Canadian columnist put out a tweet mentioning how a ‘low ranking official’ was sent to receive PM Trudeau.
https://twitter.com/CandiceMalcolm/status/964970680142897152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In her following tweets, she mentions how this could have been because of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s silence over his stand on pro-Khalistan separatists.
https://twitter.com/CandiceMalcolm/status/965329370104541184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As per Canadian media reports, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder has taken a strong stand and refused to meet PM Trudeau, whose cabinet minister he has publicly accused of being connected to Sikh separatist movement. In April 2017, Captain Amarinder had refused to meet Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, a known Khalistani sympathiser, during his visit. Hence, while Modi Government has not made it explicitly clear that they are registering their reservations against the Canadian Government’s implied support to pro-separatist movement, speculations are that the BJP government is taking tough stand against Canadian government’s treatment meted out to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder as well as their non-committal stand against pro-Khalistan separatists. Yesterday, when Trudeau visited Agra, he was received at the airport by the district magistrate, unlike his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was received by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the airport.
While BJP government snubbed Prime Minister Trudeau for flirting with Khalistanis, Congress seems to be seeing it as an opportunity to take a dig at Prime Minister Modi. Congress social media head Divya Spandana said she would give Trudeau a hug because India loves Trudeau.
https://twitter.com/divyaspandana/status/965249486825148416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
She even added a hugging emoticon, probably to show how sincere her hug to Trudeau was. However, soon enough she got called out for her ‘hugplomacy’.
https://twitter.com/c_aashish/status/965258742991376386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/India_Policy/status/965477442042433537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Even journalists, who have traditionally been anti-Modi saw merit in the government’s stand, but not Congress.
https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/965428771636510720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ShekharGupta/status/965443072631832576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Not just Divya, even Congress’ national spokesperson Sanjay Jha was busy undermining India’s united stand against pro-separatists, in support of Congress leader and Punjab CM Captain Amarinder.
https://twitter.com/JhaSanjay/status/965481597746126848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Jha and Divya snubbed their own party Chief Minister just to bring down Prime Minister Modi, who stood up with Captain Amarinder, despite political differences. Wonder if Spandana felt the need to defend Trudeau, who is busy courting Khalistani separatists because she has fashioned Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s social media campaign to project him as next liberal leader after Trudeau.