Sorry finale to Trudeau visit

India’s excessive front-loading of security considerations and Canada’s matching lack of appreciation combined to bring their bilateral relations to a new low. A Modi hug was put in play when he met Trudeau as a last-ditch effort to provide a veneer of business-as-usual. But too much rancour had spilled out in the public domain for the diplomats to salvage the visit completely. The lack of substantial conversations between the two sides in the run-up to the visit is reflected by the tone and tenor of the agreements and the MoUs agreed upon on Friday. Almost all of them give the impression of both countries taking the first baby steps towards intensifying ties. This turns the clock back on the strides made by both countries since Manmohan Singh and Stephen Harper tried to remove the overhangs of mistrust that have existed from Pokhran-1.

Canada’s lack of appreciation about India's security sensitivities was partly responsible for Trudeau and his family roaming unattended in “choreographed cuteness”. India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval did hammer out a rudimentary agreement in security but that hardly compensates for the shoddy pre-visit preparation. If the preparations with Canadian counterpart had not led to a meeting of minds, the visiting side should have been advised to opt for a truncated visit. India’s security overseers too need to be faulted for giving an entry permit to a Canadian convicted of terrorism and then trying to pin the blame on the Canadians for penciling him in on a banquet guest list.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s interaction with Trudeau did retrieve some lost ground, but the unwanted controversy of Canada’s covert support to Khalistani separatists reflects the gulf in the art of diplomacy practised by PM Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh. The same concerns were in play six years back, but Dr Singh wisely opted to field the Capt’s wife, Preneet Kaur, to articulate India’s concerns while South Block resolutely focused on pushing bilateral business. In the end, cussedness on our part and insensitivity on the Canadian side have combined to give the Trudeau visit a finishing touch of inelegant incompleteness.