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Harjit Singh Sajjan is a Sikh whose native village, Bambeli, falls in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.
Amritsar: Canada’s Indian-origin Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan on Thursday paid obeisance at the Golden Temple here.
He was presented with a robe of honour.
The minister will travel to Chandigarh later today to inaugurate the new office of the Consulate-General of Canada.
Sajjan reached the holy Sikh shrine shortly after 6 am and was received by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) President Kirpal Singh Badungar and other members.
The Minister offered prayers inside the sanctum sanctorum for around 15 minutes and listened to hymns. He also took a ‘parikrama’ (went around the shrine) and sat there awhile.
Wearing a grey turban and a white shirt, Sajjan took a round of the Harmandir Sahib’s complex and spent over an hour in its premises.
The first Sikh to become the Defence Minister of a western nation, Sajjan, 46, was later honoured by the SGPC at the shrine complex with a ‘siropa’ (traditional honour) and presented a replica of the Golden Temple and a sword.
The Canadian defence minister reached the holy city of Amritsar from New Delhi on Wednesday evening amid controversy over him being labelled as a “Khalistani sympathiser” by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
He was received at the airport by the district administration officers. Members of some radical groups were also present outside the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport with banners to welcome Sajjan.
The Minister’s family hails from Bambeli village, 15 km from Hoshiarpur. His family had migrated to Canada in mid-1970s, when Sajjan was around five years old.
Amarinder Singh had stirred a controversy last week when he said that he would not meet the visiting Canadian Minister due to his (Sajjan’s) links to radical elements who demand for a separate Sikh state, Khalistan.
In New Delhi, Sajjan sought to play down the controversy on Tuesday, saying that he did not want the break-up of any country.
The Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have welcomed Sajjan to Punjab and have condemned Amarinder Singh for his stand on the Canadian Minister.
