Is the Indian government killing its critics abroad?
A murky case in Canada could be a seismic moment for Narendra Modi’s relationship with the West.
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In June 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was murdered outside a Sikh temple in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nijjar was a prominent advocate for the Khalistan movement, which seeks to create a separate homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region of India. Later that year, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau spoke in parliament about ‘credible allegations’ of a link between agents of Narendra Modi’s Indian government and Nijjar’s murder. Four Indian nationals are currently awaiting trial for the killing.
India-Canada relations have long been deteriorating. Now, tensions seem to have reached a boiling point. Last week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued an unprecedented statement ‘on violent criminal activity occurring in Canada with connections to agents of the government of India’. The diplomatic fallout has been huge. Both countries have expelled top diplomats. Canada has even named India’s outgoing high commissioner to Canada, as well as other Indian diplomats, as ‘persons of interest’ in the Nijjar case.
The RCMP alleges that Indian officials and consular staff in Canada used ‘clandestine’ activities to gather information about dissidents, including through ‘coercion’. That information, the RCMP claims, has been used to target dissidents through criminal proxies. The RCMP says it has evidence pointing to ‘links tying the government of India to homicides and violent acts’, as well as ‘interference into democratic processes’.
It’s troubling that Canada believes Indian officials have been involved in a larger criminal network. This allegedly involves, among others, the Bishnoi gang, which targets dissidents, including those associated with pro-Khalistan activism overseas. The gang is also thought to have links with Indian officials. All this is the kind of thing you’d associate with the Italian mafia or Mexican drug cartels, not the India of the peaceful, sandal-wearing revolutionary, Mahatma Gandhi.
The Indian government has hardly been shy about its activities, either. In the run-up to the Indian elections earlier this year, prime minister Modi made a remarkable statement at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi. He said: ‘Today, even India’s enemies know: This is Modi, this is the new India. This new India comes into your home to kill you.’
Boasting about the ability to assassinate foreigners in their own homes is a far cry from how India usually likes to present itself – namely, as ‘the world’s largest democracy’. Democracies are, after all, normally associated with the rule of law and respecting the sovereignty of other nations. Of course, India denies any involvement in Nijjar’s murder and has rubbished the RCMP statement as ‘preposterous’. Yet messages between Indian diplomats obtained by the RCMP ‘include references’ to Indian home-affairs minister Amit Shah and a senior official in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) having authorised ‘intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists’. Notably, a German court previously jailed an Indian couple for spying on Sikh and Kashmiri groups for the Indian foreign-intelligence services.
It’s not just Canada that is embroiled in diplomatic rows with India. Soon after Nijjar’s murder, the US announced it had prevented an assassination plot in New York City against prominent pro-Khalistan activist and US-Canadian national Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Pannun, legal adviser for Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), is well known for his vitriolic, anti-India rants. The Indian authorities have designated him a ‘terrorist’ – allegations he denies.
An Indian national called Nikhil Gupta is alleged to have tried to pay a hitman $100,000 to murder Pannun. Fortunately for Pannun, the hitman happened to be an undercover federal agent, prosecutors say. Gupta was charged earlier this year and pleaded not guilty. Last week, the US also announced charges against an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, who is accused of being the mastermind of the Pannun plot. Gupta has been extradited to the US, but Yadav ‘remains at large’.
Washington is not taking the alleged attempt to kill an American on US soil lightly. A spokesperson for the State Department said the US ‘will not be satisfied until there is meaningful accountability’. While India is playing tough with Canada, a middle power, it’s less likely to take the same approach with the US.
For now, the wheels of justice will take their course in both the Nijjar and Pannun cases. Evidence that US and Canadian authorities cannot publicly disclose will no doubt be presented before the courts.
If the Indian government is proved to have violated Canada’s sovereignty, then this will be a seismic moment for its relationship with the West.
Hardeep Singh is a writer based in London. Follow him on X: @singhtwo2
Picture by: Getty.
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