If Prime Minister Narendra Modi got a hero’s welcome in Madison Square Garden, New York, last September, he may be well poised to receive an encore, “rockstar” reception from the Indo-Canadian community in Toronto on Wednesday evening, as he ties up the final leg of his ongoing trip abroad.
From 5.30 p.m.-8.30 p.m. EST Toronto’s Ricoh Coliseum is set to explode with a Bollywood extravaganza that will bring together eight or nine thousand lucky attendees from among the 1.2 million-strong Indo-Canadian community, all organised by the National Alliance of Indo-Canadians (NAIC).
This event, as indeed the bilateral agenda under discussion in Ottawa earlier in the day, could well be a rare opportunity for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to seal his relationship with Mr. Modi and India, and also with the Indo-Canadian community.
First bilateral visit in 40 years After all Mr. Modi’s bilateral visit to Canada is the first by an Indian leader in more than 40 years, at least since the time when Indira Gandhi was welcomed by Pierre Trudeau in 1973, and both in Toronto and later this week in Vancouver, Mr. Modi will underscore his support for the diaspora in this country.
Kicking off the parleys with a series of bilateral meetings on Wednesday morning, the Harper administration appears keen to strike deals with Mr. Modi that could include a comprehensive trade agreement to give a fillip to two-way trade, and a deep exploration of infrastructure investment opportunities in India for deep-pocketed Canadian pension funds.
In an op-ed he penned for The Globe and Mail on Wednesday Mr. Modi flagged the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as well as the strategic goals of counterterrorism cooperation and partnership at the G20, as areas where progress was likely during this visit.
Yet the Indo-Canadian community may be hoping Mr. Modi may include Canada on the visa-on-arrival country list.
NAIC president Azad Kaushik was quoted as saying that some among the community held a seminar to discuss the issue last year and then submitted a memo to erstwhile Indian Consul-General Akhilesh Mishra.
Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the rights group that launched a lawsuit against Mr. Modi in a U.S. court while he was visiting New York in September, has planned protests over allegations that Mr. Modi was responsible for “torture” during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat.
(This article has been edited for accuracy)
