New Delhi: American prosecutors charged an Indian man Thursday for trying to orchestrate the assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The New York Times reports that this is “part of an escalating response from the US and Canada to what those governments see as brazenly illegal conduct by a longtime partner”. The report officially names Vikash Yadav, a former RAW officer, as the man who “directed the assassination plot from India” by recruiting an associate, Nikhil Gupta, to arrange Pannun’s murder.
The report immediately draws equivalences between the US and Canadian response to the attempted murder of Pannun and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “The Canadian government has said the Indian government was behind that killing, just as US authorities have blamed Indian authorities for the plot to kill the New York-based activist. The US has shared intelligence with Canada as the two countries have investigated,” NYT reports.
The evidence detailed in the indictment “paints a chilling portrait of a government aspiring to kill critics who live in North America,” the report states—allegedly Nijjar and Pannun were just the start of a “longer, bloodier campaign of killings of Sikh separatists living outside India”.
The indictment implicates the Indian government directly for the first time, and also allegedly makes it clear that the attempted killing was not a one-off. The Indian government confirmed to the US government that Yadav is no longer working with the government.
The Washington Post is far more scathing in its report. “India has employed a split strategy, greeting the allegations in Canada with defiance and denials as it offers concessions to Washington that seem aimed at assuaging the Biden administration while seeking to keep the crisis from spreading,” the story says.
Underscoring the difference between both governments’ approach towards addressing the issue with India, The Post reports that while the US “confronted” New Delhi, Canada outlined “what it says is an alarmingly extensive campaign of surveillance, intimidation and violence involving Indian diplomats, criminal syndicates and a member of Modi’s inner circle”.
The report does admit that “no direct operational link” has surfaced between the Canadian cases and the alleged plot to kill Pannun.
“However, the killing of Nijjar in Canada and the alleged attempt on Pannun have parallels, and both have drawn concern that they are part of a global effort by India’s security services to harass, coerce and kill dissidents and others perceived as hostile to the Modi government,” The Post says.
An opinion piece in The Globe and Mail makes a strong case for India to its Canadian audience.
Consider the view from India, it says.
“To Indian eyes, Canada now looks like the sanctuary of choice for Sikh terrorists,” the piece says. “It’s not just nationalists who are dubious. Indians of almost every political hue now regard Canada, if not as an adversary, then as a state that gives succour to India’s avowed enemies.”
The issue of Sikh separatism might be a discredited cause in India, but its deeply bloody memory remains harrowing in the Indian imagination. Which is why it is to “New Delhi’s abiding chagrin” that Canada has “emerged as the global headquarters for the diasporic proponents of Khalistan”.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s pandering to identity politics, in this context, is “breathtaking,” the piece says. The op-ed concedes that no country should be allowed to evade accountability, and India is no exception, but Canadians should ask themselves difficult questions—like whether or not the Canadian government is facilitating international terrorism.
“And finally: are radical ethno-religious chauvinists who pledge loyalty to—and are willing to shed blood for—a noxious fantasy really worth losing the goodwill of the citizens of the world’s most populous democracy?” the opinion piece finishes.
While the western world ponders that question, the world’s most populous country is offering itself up as a model to other developing countries—like Bhutan, The Economist reports.
In a story on how Bhutan is trying to reincarnate itself as a financial hub, The Economist claims that the Himalayan kingdom can become India’s Hong Kong.
Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar has been bitten by a “city-building bug”. He has unveiled plans for a new city which is larger than Singapore and powered by hydro-energy, aiming to house a million people, including digital nomads. The project is known as Gelephu Mindfulness City, or GMC—and it is ambitious, given that Bhutan’s population is only 780,000.
In the regional power struggle between India and China, the story says, Bhutan has firmly been in India’s camp—despite a brief hitch in 2023, which has since been smoothed over. India has since backed GMC, and is building rail and road links. There’s also talk of developing a new international airport.
And so, “Indian firms could play an important role,” the story says. Reliance recently announced plans to invest $700 million in power projects, and the Adani Group has also expressed interest. It’s also luring tech investors with GMC’s emphasis on AI and crypto industries.
“GMC’s promoters talk a lot about “mindfulness”, touting it as a place of spiritual retreats and harmony with nature. At its core, though, the idea is much harder-edged: it is designed to be a financial centre offering a gateway to India, much as Singapore and Hong Kong do for China,” The Economist claims. It’s a long shot, but it might be the answer to Bhutan’s prayers, the story ends.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that since Infosys has reported a 16.7 percent increase in its dividend, the wife of the former British prime minister Akshata Murthy could now receive up to £7.5 million.
“The Sunaks were the wealthiest couple in history to live at 10 Downing Street and ranked 245th in the Sunday Times Rich list this year,” the story says, before linking Rishi Sunak and Murthy to her father, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.
It clarifies that Murthy would have to pay “as much as £3m to the Treasury for this year’s dividend alone after she said she would pay UK tax on her worldwide income in 2022”.
This potential payment to the UK Treasury is indicative of “the kind of funds the government is hoping to glean from Britain’s wealthiest residents,” The Guardian reports, to improve the state’s financial condition. Infosys’ gain also seems to be Britain’s gain, then.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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