OTTAWA –Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Liberals wasted and $17,044.21 on no-name useless celebrity chef Vikram Vij but the full cost of the full behzti (disgrace) India shelled out as a welcome mat for Trudeau and his gang of Sikh ministers exceeded $1.5 million. As one of the popular TV ADs says – the “Behzti” was priceless!
According to the latest figures released by the government, there was $323,000 for hotel stays, $485,070 to fly and staff the VIP Airbus for 43.7 hours over the nine-day trip, $5,235 for cellphone fees, $5,100 to buy Canadian wines for use at official events and a whopping $17,044.21 to fly Vancouver Chef Vij to India, where he cooked a dinner for a meeting and an official reception at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi.
Conservative MPs say the lavish trip was a huge waste of money, produced virtually no return on the investment other than the embarrassment of the Prime Minister’s Office accidentally inviting to a reception a man convicted of attempting to murder an Indian politician more than 30 years ago, reported the Globe and Mail newspaper.
Trudeau says the trip helped secure $1-billion in two-way business deals between Canadian and Indian companies that will help create 5,800 jobs in Canada. He also says he spent less to go to India for nine days than Prime Minister Stephen Harper did to travel there for six days in 2012 or three days in 2009.
Trudeau’s office says Harper’s 2009 India trip cost $1.4-million and the 2012 trip $2.5-million. The latter bill included $1.2-million to fly two armoured Cadillacs and a bulletproof SUV when the RCMP deemed them necessary for security purposes. Trudeau used cars provided by the Indian government and Canada spent about $58,800 on cars and drivers for the trip.
Conservative MP Alex Nuttall, however, says the trip cost a lot with nothing to show for it but an “international embarrassment.”
“At this point, the evidence is that it was a complete and utter failure,” Nuttall said.
Trudeau’s Indian excursion was supposed to improve ties between Canada and India, a country of more than 1.3 billion people with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. On Harper’s 2012 trip, a goal was set to increase two-way trade between Canada and India to $15-billion by 2015. It has grown substantially, more than doubling to $8.4-billion in 2016, but is still far shy of the goal.
Trudeau’s trip was derailed by rogue Indian government elements in an attempt to embarrass Trudeau and they are accused of enlisting a former attempted assassin Jaspal Atwal to mess up the festivities and create more staged ill will against Sikhs in Canada and around the world. Atwal has denied any collusion with Indian agencies and said he was simply invited by Randeep Singh Sarai, who seems to have lost his mind in doing so and now will forever sit in the shadows of this self-created disaster.
