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A National Embarrassment
Justin was photographed repeatedly,
looking like a groom at an Indian wedding, at various locations, including
state functions where Indian officials were
dressed in modern clothing. Prime Minister Modi wouldn't even meet with him until the end of the trip.
A man convicted of the attempted murder of an Indian politician in B.C. three decades ago, and who had previously belonged to a banned Sikh extremist group, Jaspal Atwal, was invited to separate events on the PM's tour. The Times of India ran the story of this foul-up with the headline: "Dinner invitation to ex-terrorist clouds Canadian PM Trudeau's visit." An Indian news reporter shouted out to him the question, "Mr. Trudeau, why did you invite a Khalistani terrorist for a reception?"
The man was well-known to Indian authorities and it wasn't difficult to find stories about him online. For example, in 2012, there was a huge outcry after Atwal was invited to attend the B.C. government's throne speech. A simple Google search would have revealed his background. Veteran reporter Kim Bolan (who has covered Sikh extremism for decades and wrote a book about the Air India bombing) revealed that information about Atwal was passed along to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service a week previous.