Spies, lies, and Khalistan

The deepening Canada-India standoff over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar has all the elements of an international potboiler where elements from Pink Panther, Johnny English, Austin Powers, and carrot-munching Karamchand are present not so much for the laughs as for credible plot value.

Consider the story so far. On June 18, Nijjar, who headed the banned terrorist group Khalistan Tiger Force was killed in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara in Surrey with several bullets found in his body. For days before he died, Nijjar had claimed his life was in danger, and he was in the crosshairs of India. Indeed, there was a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head, placed by the National Investigative Agency (NIA). Local papers report that two thick-set men with masks killed him and escaped in a silver Toyota 2008 model Camry, driven by a third suspect.

The killing follows arson and attack on the Indian consulate in San Francisco in March where perpetrators stuck Khalistani flags on the premises, attacks on the Indian High Commission in London, periodic referendums on Khalistan in Europe (in the United Kingdom and Italy), Canada, and a tableau in the Canadian town of Brampton where a march celebrated the assassination of Indira Gandhi. A number of Khalistani flags provided the backdrop. Posters too, proclaiming ‘Revenge of the attack on Shri Darbar Sahib’ and ‘Never Forget 1984. Sikh Genocide.’, and ‘Kill India.’ It is no doubt a problem that spreads even as India watches. What does India do? India complains and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself steps forward to defend the tableau citing freedom of expression.

Now consider Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons: “Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar." The idea is to “hold perpetrators of this murder to account.” Before this disclosure, Trudeau took the Opposition into confidence, as also UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, and United States President Joe Biden; and now intends to bring the issue to G7.

Could Trudeau have done it without sharing adequate proof? Could this be made public without their approval? It is worth thinking about.

Trudeau also says he brought up the matter “personally and directly in no uncertain terms” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the fringes of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. Does it mean Canada passed on the dossier on the killing during the bilaterals? The photo-op certainly shows both Trudeau and Modi scowling into the cameras. For the entire duration Trudeau was on Indian soil, television news channels trolled him. Earlier, in June, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar quipped in Hindi: Ulta Chor Kotwaal ko datey. The plot, clearly, was about to thicken.

Yet, this is exactly where the plot wears a bit thin, seemingly, at least. So far Canada has not revealed if any of the three perpetrators of the killing have been arrested. Therefore, the assassins could still be at large, unless, of course, there is a twist in the plot ahead.

Canadians have not declared the case as having been solved. Trudeau says they are following evidence. It is not clear if Nijjar, originally from near Jalandhar, was a Canadian citizen even. If the Canadian media is to be believed then what we know about Nijjar is that he came to Canada in 1997 on a fake passport, and he claimed refugee status; his claim was rejected. Eleven days later he married a woman who sponsored him for immigration; that too was rejected. The Canadian Immigration Bureau has refused to comment on this. Yet Trudeau has claimed Nijjar as a Canadian citizen.

Meanwhile, the attacks and breach of security of the Indian consulates in London, the US, and Canada, are being investigated by India’s National Investigation Agency. We can here take a moment to wonder how many trips our NIA investigators are going to make to Canada and how much co-operation they will get. Critics will, of course, say that it doesn’t really matter considering the wonderful work they do at home.

It is just as well that Indian spooks are watching Mossad reruns and taking cues. It is a far cry from letting our external affairs minister personally escort terrorists to Kandahar. But so far, the evidence that our spooks are doing anything worthwhile other than offing petty targets, whether it is in Lahore, Afghanistan, or in the Gwadar area, has been so slight as to be nearly non-existent. This will be even truer after the Taliban’s triumphal return.

You could argue that our spooks are cutting their milk teeth, and boning up for the bigger ones. Pavan Kumar Rai, who the Canadians have expelled, we know is no diplomat and was the RAW head in Canada, although he had diplomatic cover. Before he went into RAW, he was an IPS officer of Punjab cadre, a cadre not known for subtlety in its operations. Yet, was ‘Operation Nijjar’ so clumsy and low-level as to have had Indian fingerprints all over? We shall soon know how much more practice we need to put into such efforts to prevent the ISI mark being left behind in the crime scene like a calling card; here we refer to the trademark which is identifiably Indian or Bharat as the case may be.

In the current instance, though, there will be consequences. Free trade talks are already suspended. There has been a tit-for-tat expulsion, probably the first of many. The Khalistan section of the other ISI, the Indian Studies Institute as it is cutely known, could find itself flush with new secret funds to try newer, dirtier tricks. Look what happened in Kashmir last week, where a Colonel, a Major and a Deputy Superintendent of Police were killed. There could be a similar blowback in Punjab. Co-operation with other agencies could take a hit. As murmurs of concern rise from diverse capitals such as Canberra, we don’t yet know how this Canadian charge will square on democracy in India a la Manipur and democratic backsliding. Trudeau faces elections within the next two years. If he is playing to the Sikh gallery, the consequences could have the effect of enlarging and hardening extremist sentiments and, therefore, increasing our vulnerabilities.

What logic applies to the Overseas Friends of the BJP will apply equally to Overseas Friends of the Khalistanis, whoever and wherever they may be.

(V Sudarshan, a senior journalist who writes on foreign policy, is author of ‘Dead End: The Minister, the CBI, and the Murder that Wasn’t’.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.