India has been under constant international limelight for the past months. Narendra Modi’s government is on a mission to alter India’s secular ideology into a Hindu nationalist one. Religious minorities in the Modi-led fascist government are under threat. Since the Indian Supreme Court validated the revocation of Article 370, the crackdown on Muslims in Kashmir has intensified. Sikhs are also under the authoritarian radar.
There have been direct accusations that the Modi-led Indian government is behind the assassinations of pro-Khalistan Sikh leaders residing in foreign countries. In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bold accusation about India’s involvement in the murder of a Sikh Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, brought the issue to the fore. Apparently, the Indian government is going global in its hunt to eliminate the ones speaking against its fascist policies.
In a latest development, the issue got further intensified when the US federal prosecutors charged 52-year-old Indian Nikhil Gupta for his involvement in an attempted murder of an American Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York. Pannun was about to hold a referendum related to the Sikh diaspora and its demand for a separate homeland. Gupta was hired by an Indian official to carry out the assassination. Luckily, Pannun survived the attempt, but it has revealed some highly disturbing and threatening intentions of India’s RAW.
The cancellation of Biden’s visit also puts uncertainty on the Quad meeting that was expected to happen during the visit.
RAW works directly under the Indian PM office. For the last few months, it can be seen operating rogue in foreign soils. After a similar incident previously took place in the US, the FBI issued a safety warning to all of the Sikh citizens in America. Since then, more attempts have been made to silence the people advocating the Khalistan movement. “We have so many targets”, said Gupta to a US security agency. Therefore, many lives around the world are at risk.
According to Gupta’s statement, he had given an advance payment for the assassination to a hitman on June 9. In the same month, PM Modi visited the US. It is possible that the time of the murder attempt in the US had to be delayed because of this high-profile visit. But conveniently at the same time, Nijjar was murdered in Canada. Following Nijjar’s murder, when Ottawa asked New Delhi to probe into the matter, New Delhi paid lip service to Ottawa’s concerns. Instead, India ordered the expulsion of Canadian diplomats in India. By doing so, New Delhi strained its relations with an already provoked Ottawa.
But after Gupta’s indictment from the US, its response saw a shift. The Indian government said that it would formally investigate the concerns and take necessary action on the findings. No diplomat was called back home. It is clear that the foreign policy of India is dependent on its interest rather than principle. It is readily willing to abide by the American concerns; because Canada does not offer what the US does. Being a closer ally to the US, especially in the context of US Indo-Pacific policy, India is more committed, rather tilted, toward the US.
Pakistan has also been a victim of these extraterritorial killings. In May of this year, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a Sikh separatist leader, was killed in Lahore, by unidentified assailants. Similar to Nijjar, he was designated as a ‘most wanted’ terrorist by India. Recently, the Indian Supreme Court validated Modi’s move to unilaterally annex the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir by granting the 2019 revocation of Article 370 a constitutional action. This is simply the display of a Hindu-oriented mindset by the BJP government.
Since 2019, the crackdown on Kashmiri people by the BJP government has been on the rise. Muslims are being illegally detained, forcefully incarcerated and extrajudicially killed. And now, after the Supreme Court’s ruling, it will intensify further. Another display of Modi’s Hindu nationalism was observed recently when three Kashmiri civilian men were killed by the Indian army. All three were Muslims. The government offered jobs and financial retribution to the victims’ families which indicates the direct role of the Indian army in these killings.
This propagation of violence, duplicity in foreign policy and double standards has damaged India’s credibility. It cannot be called a trusted member of the international community. Modi’s Hindu supremacy doctrine is undermining India’s international reputation. It is out to harm every religious group other than Hinduism. US President Joe Biden has reportedly rejected Modi’s invitation as the chief guest of India’s Republic Day ceremony. Analysts are of the view that the attempted murder of Pannun, a US Sikh citizen, is behind this attitude. The cancellation of Biden’s visit also puts uncertainty on the Quad meeting that was expected to happen during the visit.
On the other hand, the alliance between the US and Canada is not as strong as it seems. Being the leading member of the Five Eyes intelligence group, the organization that later revealed the evidence of the Indian government’s involvement in Nijjar’s assassination, it deliberately hid the information from Canada to safeguard its South Asian ally. But when an attack took place on American soil, it didn’t hesitate to call out India for its involvement. And for its part, India complied.
These circumstances indicate that the diplomatic relations between the various states involved are at risk of getting strained. It may lead to international criticism and isolation for India. Other nations may also become wary of engaging in diplomatic or strategic partnerships, fearing repercussions or damage to their own diaspora. From the outlook of it, India’s extraterritorial killings and attacks are the root cause. The violence can erode trust among these states. The international community must take action against the rogue RAW whose actions have cast a threatening shadow on everyone who speaks against the Indian government. Through diplomatic pressure, sanctions, or international forums, India must be held accountable and its transnational terrorism must be forced to halt.
The writer is a student of Strategic Studies at National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad.