No ‘bhangra’ for Carney? Why Canada PM won’t visit Punjab, unlike his predecessors

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in India on his first official visit since assuming the top post last year. Carney landed in Mumbai on Friday (February 27) and will fly to New Delhi in the coming days.

The Canadian PM will remain in India until March 2. During the visit, he will interact with business leaders in Mumbai and hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Carney will not make a stopover in Punjab, unlike his predecessors. The move has irked some Sikh groups.

We take a look.

Mark Carney’s India visit

Canada PM Mark Carney is in Mumbai, where he will participate in business engagements over the next two days.

He is set to interact with Indian and Canadian CEOs, industry and financial experts, innovators, educators and Canadian Pension Funds based in India, as per a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

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Carney will head to Delhi on March 1. He will hold delegation-level talks with PM Modi at Hyderabad House the next day. They will review cooperation in trade and investment, energy, critical minerals, agriculture, education, research and innovation, and people-to-people ties.

The two leaders will also attend the India-Canada CEOs Forum on March 2.

Carney’s first trip to India comes as Canada is seeking new investment and export markets as it tries to reduce economic reliance on the United States. The Canadian leader is also hoping to reset relations between the two countries, which were severely strained during his predecessor Justin Trudeau’s tenure.

Ties took a downturn in 2023 after Trudeau alleged the role of the Indian government in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist, in Canada’s Surrey.

New Delhi rejected the charge, alleging Canada was a “safe haven” for “terrorists, extremists and organised crime”.

After Carney came to power in early 2025, both sides put in efforts to bring the ties back on track. The Canadian PM set the ball rolling by inviting PM Modi to the G7 summit in Kananaskis last June.

The duo met and decided to restore high commissioners and resume talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Five months later, PM Modi and Carney met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

Since then, the relationship between India and Canada has been on the mend.

Mark Carney won’t visit Punjab

As New Delhi and Ottawa try to repair their frayed relationship, Carney’s itinerary does not include a visit to Punjab, a major source of immigration to Canada.

His two predecessors, Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, both had travelled to Punjab during their official visits to India.

Harper was in India in 2009 when he went to Punjab and its Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest site in the Sikh faith. He returned to Punjab during his 2012 India trip, visiting the Sikh Heritage Centre among other locations.

Trudeau’s 2018 visit to the Golden Temple with family was ridiculed online over their choice of clothes. Trudeau, his then-wife, Sophie Gregoire, and their children faced criticism for their overly elaborate Indian outfits at the shrine.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire, daughter Ella Grace and son Xavier pose for photographers during their visit to the holy Sikh shrine of Golden temple in Amritsar, February 21, 2018. File Photo/Reuters

Three of the four former Canadian prime ministers have visited the Golden Temple when in India. Jean Chrétien visited the temple in 2003 as prime minister. Paul Martin, who succeeded Chrétien, did not.

"Carney has a sense of gravitas and is very strategic," Partha Mohanram, a management professor at the University of Toronto, told Reuters. "He's not going to do a bhangra dance over there."

A visit to the Golden Temple is reportedly viewed as a symbolic gesture toward Canada’s large Sikh community, which makes up a powerful voting bloc.

The Canadian PM choosing not to visit Punjab is possibly a message to India.

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, told The Globe and Mail that Carney’s itinerary seems like a sign that his foreign policy is “more focused on national interest and not limited to certain diaspora priorities.”

Carney faces flak for skipping Punjab

Some Sikh groups have criticised Carney for skipping Punjab during his India visit.

"The Carney government has failed to hold India accountable or to create any meaningful safeguards to ensure that Sikh Canadians are protected from foreign interference and transnational repression," the World Sikh Organization of Canada said in a statement on Wednesday, as per Reuters.  

Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the Ottawa-based World Sikh Organization, said to The Globe and Mail, it appears that Carney "'wants to show the Indians ‘I’m here to do business, and let’s not let the Sikhs complicate things.’ ”

Canada's Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) press secretary Laura Scaffidi has defended Carney's absence from Punjab, saying the visit focuses on business. She said in a statement that the PM will travel to Mumbai and New Delhi to “focus on expanding economic and business relationships, identify investment opportunities in Canada, and create new partnerships between businesses in both nations.”

Scaffidi said cultural outreach will take place at home. “When he is in Canada, the Prime Minister will continue his engagements with cultural communities including attending important celebrations and events on days of significance.”

Kanwar Pal Singh, leader of radical Sikh outfit Dal Khalsa, also expressed dismay over the Canadian PM omitting Punjab from his itinerary this time.

The Dal Khalsa letter to Carney said the Sikhs in Punjab would have been pleased Canadian PM’s itinerary included a visit to Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple).

With inputs from agencies