Awaited: Modi hug for Trudeau

New Delhi: The absence of customary gestures extended to visiting world leaders by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set off speculation on whether Canadian Premiere Justin Trudeau has been snubbed for the pro-Khalistan links of some of his ministers. After landing in New Delhi on Saturday, Trudeau was received by a junior agricultural minister and only by district officials when he visited the Taj Mahal a day later. However, the fact remains that the official leg of his eight-day visit begins on Friday, when he is scheduled to get a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt and meet President Ram Nath Kovind, Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. For those trying to read signs in Modi's symbol-laden diplomacy, an official said the Prime Minister was "selective". "In any case, the tarmac welcome is something Prime Minister Modi has used selectively - only six times since May 2014. Joint trips to Gujarat (with visiting world leaders) is also something he has used sparingly. Not everyone gets that treatment," the official pointed out. The bulk of Trudeau's visit has been planned by the Canadian mission, and is being seen by those in the know as election-driven. The next federal elections in Canada are due next year, and Trudeau's stopovers in India - Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Mumbai - are being viewed as an outreach to the large Indian diaspora back home. India is Canada's second-largest source of immigrants with 3.6 per cent of the country's population being of Indian origin. Speculation on the kind of reception Trudeau could get when he visits Amritsar on Wednesday was put to rest by chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday with a tweet "Look forward to meeting Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau in Amritsar on Wednesday. I'm hopeful that this meeting will help strengthen the close Indo-Canadian business ties as well as the deep-rooted people-to-people relations between our two countries," the Congress veteran tweeted. Amarinder could use the opportunity to request him to rein in anti-India and pro-Khalistani elements in his government. Trudeau's Punjab visit became a matter of particular interest in the light of how Amarinder had refused to meet the Canadian defence minister of Indian origin, Harjit Singh Sajjan, in 2017 on the premise that he was a "Khalistani sympathiser". In an official statement on Monday, the chief minister's office said he had issued instructions to the state administration to roll out the red carpet for Trudeau. Sources in the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages the Golden Temple, said Canadian officials visited the shrine on Monday with the message from Trudeau that he wanted the visit to be simple. "The Canadian Prime Minister wants to be accompanied by his wife and three children inside the Golden Temple, without any fanfare, to feel the spirituality of the place," an SGPC official said. According to sources, the meeting with Amarinder is likely to be held at an Amritsar hotel.