Trudeau to get grand welcome at Golden Temple

India is gearing itself for according a grand welcome to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on this official visit to India that starts on Feb 17.  The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is planning to honor him in a style and way perhaps no other visiting dignitary has been ever accorded before.  “If we get permission from the administration, we will arrange a stage in the entrance plaza outside the shrine complex to honour him as per Sikh tenets,”  Roop Singh, chief secretary of the SGPC has been quoted by a leading daily from Chandigarh. SGPC is the apex Gurdwara body which manages affairs of Sikhism’s central shrine and other historical Gurdwaras in India.

Such arrangements are made by the SGPC on rare occasions, such as the visits of Queen Elizabeth II (1997) and the then prime minister Manmohan Singh (2004). For Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, who is one of the four Sikh ministers in Trudeau’s cabinet, the SGPC had set up a tent on the plaza, though its size was relatively small. “We will conduct a special meeting of officials and office-bearers to ensure proper arrangements,”  Jagjit Singh Jaggi, personal secretary to SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal is reported to have said. The likely date of Trudeau’s visit to Amritsar as part of his India visit is February 21, though the final call will be taken after a team of Canadian officials visits to take stock of the arrangements by the district administration and the SGPC.

While CM Capt Amarinder Singh is likely to accompany Trudeau, leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal — which controls the SGPC — may also be represented, by Union minister Harsimrat Badal and her husband, SAD president Sukhbir Badal.