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The novelty here is only that they did it on Indian soil. On an official visit with the prime minister. While he was attempting to reassure Indian officials that their concerns about his government;were groundless. One wants to believe this was mere incompetence. But alas, a disaster of this scale could only have been on purpose.

Photo by JASPAL ATWAL/FACEBOOK

When the story broke the blame was first fixed on the High Commission to India, the organizers of the dinner. But it is impossible: impossible that officials there would have invited Atwal had they known about his past, and impossible that they could not have known.

Eventually a hapless Liberal backbencher, Surrey Centre MP Randeep Sarai, was produced to claim “full responsibility” for the invitation: “I alone facilitated” it, his statement read. The prime minister followed by graciously accepting the MP’s acceptance of responsibility.

But this, too, is absurd. The MP may have been the one to invite him. But it is impossible that he could have been added to the guest list for such a high-stakes event solely on his say-so. As anyone close to these things will tell you, it could only have been with the concurrence of the prime minister’s office.

And even if, by some colossal misadventure, this were the truth — if an obscure backbench MP put forward the name of a convicted terrorist, and no one bothered to check — where did the MP get the idea to invite him? Why did he imagine this would meet with approval? Answer: because there was nothing that unusual about it. The culture and values of an organization are set at the top. If those lower down act on them, that is the responsibility of their leader, who ought to accept it on his own behalf, not others’.