India has committed to cooperating with the United States as it prosecutes an Indian citizen suspected of plotting the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York, while a similar case recently led to a diplomatic incident with Canada.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that it was prosecuting an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, for plotting to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in New York at the behest of a New Delhi agent.
In response to these comments, India’s Foreign Ministry announced that New Delhi had “formed a high-level investigative commission on November 18 after informing Washington of “links between criminal organizations, arms traffickers, terrorists and others.”
“The Indian government will take the necessary measures based on the findings of the commission of inquiry,” assured ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi.
This response is in stark contrast to India’s angry response in September when Canada accused its intelligence services of assassinating Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian of Indian origin, on its territory on June 18.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Indian authorities’ involvement in the attack and called on “the Indian government to cooperate” to “shed light on the matter.” India then condemned “absurd” allegations and a diplomatic crisis broke out between the two countries.
“Transnational Repression”
If India is much more cooperative this time, some observers like journalist Shubhajit Roy fear that this new incident will “taint” its important ties with Washington.
“The depth of its strategic ties with the United States gives it some leeway, but New Delhi has work to do,” Roy wrote in the Indian Express.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned in September after Canada’s accusation against India that the United States would be “extremely vigilant whenever there are allegations of transnational repression.”
He was referring to the repression that authoritarian regimes exercise against their citizens outside their borders, which came to light in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
These events are undermining efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the most recent host of the G20 summit, to restore his standing on the international stage.
“This leads to greater distrust of Modi,” Hartosh Singh Bal, editor-in-chief of The Caravan magazine, told AFP, saying intelligence sharing with Delhi will suffer.
“India is accused of reckless behavior that will cause its allies to shy away from trusting leaders who are willing to do so,” he continues.
“Accusation”
According to the indictment released by the US Department of Justice, an Indian government agent recruited Nikhil Gupta, who was involved in drug and arms trafficking, to murder “the victim” in exchange for the dismissal of criminal proceedings against him.
Mr. Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30, was charged with ordering murder “in connection with his involvement in a foiled plot to murder an American citizen” of Indian origin in New York.
While the ministry did not name the alleged target, the Financial Times identified him as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the founding lawyer of the American organization Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which calls for an independent Sikh state in northern India.
He was designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi in 2020 and is wanted for “terrorism and sedition.”
“American officials must now grapple with the possibility that one of their key strategic partners may have attempted an extrajudicial operation on American soil,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute, told AFP at the Wilson Center.
“It’s a disturbing realization that will continue.”
In contrast to Canada, which “made its allegations public,” for Kugelman, the United States “dealt with them in silence and secretly.” In addition, “Canada’s allegations were not based on solid evidence, while in the United States there is an unsealed indictment with many details,” he reports.
Potentially damaging for Narendra Modi on the international stage, the situation is very different in India, where the Sikh independence movement has been blamed for the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and a bombing of a commercial airliner.
On the contrary, these events could galvanize supporters of the Hindu nationalist prime minister, who is seeking a new term next year.