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“Canada said [last] Monday that it was ‘actively pursuing credible allegations’ linking Indian government agents to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June… Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was designated by India as a ‘terrorist’ in July 2020.” Reuters
“India on Thursday suspended new visas for Canadians and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, sharply escalating a spat triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's accusations linking New Delhi to a Sikh separatist's murder. India was willing to look into specific information in connection with the accusations, its foreign ministry said, adding that Canada has not shared anything so far.” Reuters
Both sides condemn the killing:
“The Indian government accused Nijjar of plotting attacks on its soil, but he denied these claims and was never extradited. The Sikh insurgency came to an end more than two decades ago. If India is behind Nijjar’s killing, its actions don’t reflect fears of Sikh secession so much as India’s transformation into an illiberal state where the government has elevated one religion—Hinduism—at the expense of all others, and where policy makers tolerate little dissent…
“Trudeau’s claim, if true, should remind the United States that India is not, in fact, a natural friend. The Indian government is trying to create not a great, peaceful democracy but an avowedly Hindu power that dominates South Asia. It may work with America to constrain China, but that is because challenging Beijing is in India’s interests, not because India supports the West.”
Daniel Block, The Atlantic
“What the Indian government is alleged to have done is uncomfortably similar to the Saudi government’s execution and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist and U.S. green-card holder Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Abusing activists, dissidents, and political prisoners on your own soil is bad enough. But running operations to kill them in somebody else’s country is meant to send a message that dissidents aren’t safe anywhere…
“Diplomacy and foreign policy require us to prioritize what issues matter to us the most. Perhaps keeping India aligned with the U.S. against China is our most important priority. But turning a blind eye to Indian government agents’ just straight up murdering critics on the soil of an ally is a tough pill to swallow.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
Other opinions below.
“Trudeau’s government must declassify at least some of its intelligence if it wants to have a diplomatic impact. Trudeau’s hesitating weakness has surely encouraged Modi’s government to believe it can ride out this storm even if New Delhi is guilty as charged. After all, facing a foreign democracy gunning down Canadian residents, Trudeau has responded with only the mildest of diplomatic countermeasures…
“As it grows in power and influence, India must realize that its Western connections can’t come with unilateral benefits. India’s arrogant response to recent U.S. intelligence and military overtures and its refusal to allow American journalists to travel freely indicate that Modi’s government believes it can reap far more benefits from the West than what it reciprocates.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“The new cold war calls for a strategy not unlike the first one, requiring the West to deal with imperfect allies or partners. You hold your nose and shake hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because you need him in the trenches against Xi Jinping…
“Morally murky as it may be, the allies need to find a way to get Mr. Trudeau to walk back his accusation. At the same time—and as part of the compromise—it has to be made clear to Mr. Modi that there can be no assassinations by Indian operatives on the territory of friendly countries. Canada’s investigation would taper off in exchange for a commitment from India to perform no such stunts in the future, as well as to reconcile itself to the fact that Canada is a proper democracy with full free-speech rights, even for Sikh separatists.”
Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal
“India is so important that other nations will be tempted to avert their eyes and not get involved in Canada’s quarrel with Delhi. In 2018, in response to a Russian assassination on British soil, the United States expelled 60 Russians, and 14 European countries took similar steps; that won’t happen this time. But we shouldn’t give assassins a pass just because they come from a country we’re courting…
“Western countries should categorically stand with Canada in calling for a fair investigation of the murder and justice for those responsible. The current international silence is conspicuously loud. Canadians deserve better from us, and so do Indians.”
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
“The United States has an infinite tolerance for human rights abuses—including extraterritorial murder—as long as the guilty party is a key ally. This is the ‘our SOB’ doctrine, based on an apocryphal remark attributed to Franklin Delano Roosevelt about the Dominican Republic’s dictator at the time, Rafael Trujillo, who was supposedly described as ‘an SOB, but he’s our SOB.’…
“The new bipartisan consensus, shared by Joe Biden and Donald Trump alike, that the United States must lead a global alliance to counter the rise of China is, despite Washington’s demurral, a return to the Cold War. And with it, Cold War logic has returned—including an inexhaustible supply of forgiveness for ‘our SOBs.’… Biden, who had once promised to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah’ for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is instead deepening ties to Mohammed bin Salman’s regime.”
Jeet Heer, The Nation
