AMRITSAR: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was on his maiden visit to India with his family, arrived at Amritsar's Golden Temple last week. He also met Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, at a hotel in Amritsar. The much-awaited meeting went very smoothly, with Singh stating that Trudeau had assured him that his country did not support any separatist movement in India or elsewhere.
During the 40-minute meeting between the two leaders, Singh handed over a list of nine 'Category A' Canada-based operatives allegedly involved in hate crimes in Punjab by financing and supplying weapons for terrorist activities and radicalising youth and children in the state. The meeting, which was also attended by Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, and Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, saw Amarinder raise the issue of Indo-Canadians believed to be involved in targeted killings in Punjab and urge Trudeau to take stern action against such elements. Prior to the meeting, Sidhu had expressed confidence saying the one-to-one would not only strengthen ties between them, but would also help transform them.
Dressed in traditional Indian clothes, with their heads covered, the Trudeaus earlier, bowed before the holy book of the Sikhs, and tried to make chappatis at the 'langar' in the Golden Temple as they spent over an hour at the shrine. Wearing an off-white embroidered kurta-pyjama, with his head covered with a 'kesari', Trudeau entered the complex with wife Sophia, who wore a light turquoise kurta and white palazzo, and their children. They first went to the Langar Hall, where they did sewa, and kneaded flour and roll chapatis.
They also did parikrama before entering the sun-soaked and glittering all-gold sanctum sanctorum. They bowed before the Guru Granth Sahib, and were given Siropa- traditional robe of honour, by the head priest inside the shrine. Trudeau also visited the Partition Museum.
