The ghost of Andy Kaufman spotted in India: nope, it's just Trudeau

No, it isn't Andy Kaufman

Initially they thought he was Andy Kaufman and that his ghost had made it's way to New Delhi. They thought he was just doing a schtick for the folks in India, and initially they laughed.

But upon closer scrutiny they realized it was Justin Trudeau, the so-called Prime Minister of Canada, land of the Loony and Toony, hockey and curling, and it was no longer funny.

Trudeau (aka "the Forrest Gump of Politics") arrived in India with his wife, Sophie, and their three kids, for a weeklong visit. And Justin brought along a variety of Indian garb for the myriad photo ops he enjoys. 

There's a photo of him in front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar and other photos with Bollywood stars.  

Vot to do?

Indian media said that the liberal PM was trying too hard and that he was "too Indian even for an Indian." But because Trudeau is a flaming liberal, those on the left never labeled what he did as "cultural appropriation," only conservatives do that.

While visiting the Sabarmati ashram in Gujarat, where Ghandi lived after returning from South Africa, the Trudeaus wore color coordinated red kurtas (loosely fitted collarless shirts). 

They looked marvelous dahling!

At a night event in Mumbai (aka Bombay) with Bollywood folks, the Latke lookalike wore an embarrassing gold and red sherwani and Sophie wore a cream and silver saree while actual Indians wore simple black suits.

On social media, several popular Indian personalities called for Trudeau to "have some chill" regarding his Indian attire, and called his outfits "fake and annoying."

But Trudeau, the darling of Western media, made political blunders to go along with the cultural ones.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known for his social media savvy and his Donald Trump-like patriotism for India, did not post anything online welcoming Trudeau, and Justin was greeted as he deplaned by a low-level agricultural minister.

On Tuesday, Sophie posed for a photo with Jaspal Atwal, a Sikh separatist and convicted terrorist. In fact, Trudeau's liberal party has close ties to the country's Sikh minority, and some of them support the Khalistan movement which backs a separate Sikh state in the Punjab region of India. (Think of California trying to become its own country and Jerry Brown sending a hit man to take out someone in the Trump administration.)

When Outlook India magazine pointed this out, they were disinvited from a dinner with Trudeau. "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau feted the world over as the new face of 'liberalism' seem [sic] to find it difficult to accommodate critical media coverage," the magazine wrote.

After Trudeau assured India's government that he didn't back the Khalistan movement, Canada's diplomatic mission sent and then rescinded a dinner invitation to the man convicted of trying to kill an Indian politician. The pal of Trudeau spent some hard time in the slammer, and you would think Justin would have the sense to have him stay in Canada.

Back in Canada, Trudeau was criticized for making his visit mostly about photo ops and less about doing his job as Prime Minister.

"I don't know if Justin Trudeau thinks that international trade missions are reality TV shows, but they are not," said Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer.

President Trump agreed.

A CTV news broadcaster, Don Martin said that "If this is Trudeau putting Canada 'back' on the world state, we should get off."

With five days into the trip, Modi finally acknowledged Trudeau's arrival on social media by posting a photo of Trudeau in normal Western garb from 2015.



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