New Delhi: Russia Wednesday accused the US of “meddling” and trying to influence the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in India by alleging the involvement of the Narendra Modi government in the purported conspiracy to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
In the first such comment by Russia on the ongoing row between India and the US on this issue, Moscow also said that Washington has not furnished any credible information or evidence of New Delhi’s involvement in the alleged assassination plot.
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, said at a briefing Wednesday that America had not furnished any credible information or evidence that Indian citizens were involved “in the preparation of killing Pannun”.
She said the ensuing speculation was not acceptable as there was no evidence.
Zakharova added the US simply did not under “the national mindset and the historical context of the development of the Indian state”, nor did they respect it.
“We believe that it stems from the neo-colonial mindset (of the US),” the spokesperson said, answering a query on allegations levelled in an indictment in the Pannun case.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson added that America’s claims are a part of its efforts to “make it harder to have the general parliamentary elections”, labelling them as meddling into Indian domestic affairs.
America has said it foiled the murder-for-hire plot to kill Pannun — an India designated terrorist — in June last year.
Last month, The Washington Post reported that Vikram Yadav — a midcareer officer from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deputed to the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) — was the agent suspected to be responsible for working with an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, to hatch the alleged plot to kill to Pannun.
The report added that the then chief of R&AW, Samant Goel, approved the alleged plot to kill Pannun and suggested that the upper echelons of the Indian government may have been aware of it, but conceded that there is no clear evidence of this.
Gupta was lured out of India and arrested by Czech authorities in Prague on 30 June 2023, the American paper said. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had termed the report “speculative” and “irresponsible”.
Gupta was named in an indictment by the US Justice Department as the individual allegedly involved in hiring the assassins to kill Pannun. The Indian official was not named in the indictment, but was referred to as “CC-1”, that the American paper reports is Yadav.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson also went a step ahead to take down a US report on the “violation of religious freedoms” in India, saying America regularly casts “unfounded accusations” against countries.
A recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) criticised India for alleged violations of religious freedom in the country and urged the US administration to designate New Delhi as a “country of particular concern (CPC)”.
The MEA came down hard on the USCIRF document, calling the organisation a “biassed” entity with a political agenda, aimed at interfering in the ongoing general elections.
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