We can learn a lot from the yawning gap between how the Indian government reacts to allegations of wrongdoing on its part when they come from Canada and when they come from the United States.
Sadly, none of it should make this country feel any better about itself.
To be specific: when Justin Trudeau shocked the House of Commons in September by announcing he had “credible allegations” that India was involved in the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver, the government of Narendra Modi could hardly have been more dismissive.
It called the prime minister’s accusations “absurd and motivated” and refused even to co-operate in investigating them. A press campaign followed that painted Trudeau as indulging in “political posturing” (as a Times of India editorial put it) for crass domestic reasons.
Contrast that with Delhi’s reaction to this week’s bombshell allegation by U.S. federal prosecutors that a senior Indian government official directed a plot to murder a Sikh leader in New York City, and was involved in a wider campaign to carry out multiple assassinations in Canada (three more “jobs”.)
The criminal indictment containing those charges is an astonishing document. It’s based on electronic intercepts of communications between the senior official (identified only by the code name CC-1) and an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta he recruited to arrange the assassination of a Sikh separatist.
Even before those charges were made public, the Indian government was rushing to get ahead of them. It announced it took them “seriously” and had already set up a “high-level Enquiry Committee to look into all the relevant aspects of the matter.”
The hard truth is that India feels it can brush aside allegations from Canada, even when they come from the very top, but it can’t afford to do that when they come from a credible American source. It’s not about truth-seeking, let alone justice-seeking. It’s all about the relative balance of power.
In fact, India continues to treat Canada with mild contempt. It still refuses to take Trudeau’s allegations seriously and its high commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Verma, was out on the weekend further muddying the waters. He told CTV News India is co-operating with the U.S. but not Canada because it hasn’t been given any “specific” information on the Vancouver killing — even though there’s now plenty of evidence it was linked to the New York plot. How specific do you have to get?
India’s problem with Canada is that it thinks the Trudeau government has been playing footsie with Sikh separatists because of this country’s large and influential Sikh population. India does have some legitimate grievances on that front, but nothing that would remotely justify murdering a Canadian citizen — let alone organizing a co-ordinated plot to eliminate Sikh activists.
What else can we conclude? The biggest difference between the Vancouver and New York plots was that the one in Canada tragically succeeded and the one in New York was thwarted by some very sophisticated intelligence work, as detailed in this week’s indictment.
It’s clear Canada needs a more robust intelligence capability to get ahead of these threats, which are much more extensive than most of us knew. It’s obviously not enough to rely so heavily on our allies.
It’s also obvious that the inquiry into foreign interference launched by the government in September must address the kind of blatant interference involved in plotting to kill Canadians engaged in political causes opposed by a foreign government.
The inquiry’s focus, outlined in its terms of reference, is on interference in “federal electoral processes and democratic institutions.” That’s what China and Russia, in particular, are accused of. But it’s hard to imagine how an inquiry tasked with looking into foreign meddling could whistle on by the type of shocking interference allegedly perpetrated by the government of India, or at least some elements of it.
We need to figure out ways to protect Canadian democracy, and Canadians themselves. If we can’t manage that we’ll deserve the lack of respect we’re getting from India and others.
