Justice Department charges Indian official for murder for hire plot.

 

File photo of the Justice Department. NPR/Getty.

The Justice Department has charged an Indian official for a murder for hire plot as India has been alienating North American countries. NPR. Vikash Yadav, a former Indian Intelligence official, has been charged in a plot to kill a Sikh separatist named Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Pannun has advocated the creation of an independent Sikh state in Northern India. Yadav's partner in the scheme, an Indian gun runner and drug smuggler Nikhil Gupta, who was arrested and extradited last year from Chechia. The indictment of Yadav shows a direct link to the Indian government in an assassination scheme on US soil. The indictment came on the heels of a major diplomatic incident between Canada and India over a successful assassination of an associate of Pannun named Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Canada. Both India and Canada have expelled diplomats in response to the crisis. 

My Comment:

This is a new development in an old news story, but one that has major implications for US-India relations. The attempted murder of an US citizen conducted by an actual government official is always going to be a major diplomatic incident. Especially since India has done this more than once now. 

The damage was worse in Canada where the Indian plot to kill these separatist leaders actually succeeded. They are to the point where they are expelling each others diplomats. That shows how serious things are, that's not an action you take lightly. Obviously the two countries aren't going to go to war but still, it's a major problem. 

So why does India want these men dead so badly? Sikh nationalism has been a major problem for India since its inception. They have conducted terror attacks and even independence campaigns in the past. It doesn't seem like the  men that were targeted in these plots were violent, though the news articles I have read haven't mentioned it either way. Regardless, India does not want the Sikh independence movement to gain any steam and they think that killing these men would accomplish that. 

That doesn't seem to have happened, and indeed, they have made Nijar into a martyr and also angered both Canada and the United States. Indeed, this is going to be a major problem for India and it will take a lot for them to reduce tensions with the United States and Canada. Both countries are about to get new governments soon, but even then the damage is done. 

I have had mixed feelings about the government of India for awhile now. This is not something that legit governments do and I have to point out that both North Korea and Russia got a lot of criticism for doing the same kind of things. But India has largely been forgiven outside of Canada and haven't got anywhere the criticism that Russia and North Korea have gotten for similar murder plots. 

I do generally support India as a good counter-balance to China. China and India do not get along very well either. But is it worth it when they try to murder our citizens? And President Modi has gone a bit authoritarian and tends to put Hindu citizens in front of everyone else. I'm not sure if our relationship with them is going to be a productive one...