An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India’, an exhaustive report claimed to be ‘exclusive’ by The Washington Post and published on April 29, is noteworthy for more reasons than merely its contents. This has been completely lost sight of in India—in the government’s response to the report, in the praise of the story by opponents of the BJP-led government and in opinionated criticism of the newspaper, which is a reliable window on Washington’s affairs.
Pronouncedly, a day after the publication of the article, the Post’s Editorial Board thus described in its front-page opinion, about the attempted assassination of United States citizen and Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil: “A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last.” Opinions on their front pages by well-regarded US newspapers are not written every day. The Post’s Editorial Board has expressed itself on India in its almost sesquicentennial history on rare occasions. The Pokhran II nuclear tests in 1998 was one such. The April 30 front-page opinion on the assassination plot against Pannun is also noteworthy for reasons which go beyond the views that the editorial conveyed.
Noteworthy is the key word. Not praiseworthy. The Post’s revelations and opinions must be set against the three deferrals of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to India in the last five months. The Joe Biden administration is clearly putting the brakes on high-level visits to India by its top officials. Such hints began last October, when President Biden decided to sit on an invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade on January 26, 2024. After Indian diplomats repeatedly badgered the president’s top aides, it was finally conveyed to India as late as December that Biden had opted to turn down the invitation.
Graciously, French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to be a substitute to Biden and salvage the January 26 celebrations, although the Élysée Palace was approached only in the second week of December. The White House is making obvious such distancing from India in opaque, but unmistakable messages, which are meant to make official New Delhi sit up and think.
In stark contrast, highest-level policymakers from Washington are trooping into Beijing one after another, making a mockery of what Biden’s aides are telling the Modi government: that it seeks to work with India on reining in China.
This trend is not confined to the US administration. On April 16, the government hastily notified in the Gazette of India 100 percent foreign investment in some categories in the space sector and approval through the automatic route. These had been decided by the Union Cabinet in February, but subsequently put on the backburner. The haste was because space entrepreneur Elon Musk, among the richest persons in the world, made known his plans to visit India on April 21 and meet Modi. On the cards was a $3-billion investment announcement by Musk’s companies during his visit. In New Delhi, invitations were sent out for some of Musk’s events. Then, abruptly, on the eve of his departure from the US, Musk announced the cancellation of his trip, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations”.
A week later, Musk turned up in China and met Premier Li Qiang instead of the Indian leader. It is well known that America’s corporate honchos take the advice of the US government on matters of their overseas involvement. Especially when their activities have a security dimension, such as Musk’s forays into the space business.
In 2020, Jeff Bezos, another of the world’s richest men, owner of The Washington Post and Amazon, was in India. Not only was his request for a meeting with Modi turned down, no Union minister or top bureaucrat gave him an appointment. “The Washington Post editorial policy is highly biased and agenda-driven,” said the BJP foreign affairs department in-charge, Vijay Chauthaiwale, at that time about India’s ill-considered snub to Bezos. To make matters worse, Amazon came under the lens of Indian government agencies. It is time the powers that be in New Delhi shed such arrogance or be prepared to face a US backlash for their thoughtless actions.
The Post will justifiably deny any suggestion that its writings in the Pannun case were approved by the US government. The newspaper, it was clear however, was elaborately briefed by the Biden administration on the contents of its two articles. They contain details that only the most secretive agencies of the US government have access to. When the US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer was in India last December, India tried to wriggle out of its Pannun quandary. Finer was told that Vikram Yadav, the intelligence officer whom the US considers to be at the centre of the plot against the Khalistan propagandist, was no longer with the spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and had been reverted to his parent organisation. Within hours, the White House issued a readout that “Finer acknowledged...the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible”.
The US is trying its utmost not to damage its relations with India, carefully nurtured by both countries since President Bill Clinton’s historic visit in 2000. That is why US state department spokespersons have repeatedly declined after The Post’s articles to go into details of this episode. Washington officially gave the heads-up to India that The Post was working on a story on the Pannun plot. The Biden administration is privately telling its Indian counterpart that it cannot let go of a plot hatched on its soil against one of its citizens.
The newspaper articles are meant to publicly convince India to do more, so that the conundrum can be put behind by the time post-poll governments take charge in New Delhi and in Washington. In meeting this imperative, India must go beyond recycling its old gripe that the Anglo-Saxon world is soft on terrorism directed against countries outside the Western alliance. Their double standards on terrorism will not change. India must, therefore, invent a more creative approach to this problem.
(Views are personal)
(kpnayar@gmail.com)
K P Nayar | Strategic Analyst