India struggles to deny plot to kill Sikh secessionists
On December 10, Arindam Bagchi, the frequently blunt spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, perhaps disgruntled by the need to work on a Sunday, posted a bad-tempered official response to allegations published on news website The Intercept. Reporters Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim said that a leaked memo provided evidence that Indian intelligence services were cracking down on Sikh separatists living in North America. Among the dissidents listed in the memo, supposedly written in April, was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was murdered in Vancouver in June.
Such reports, thundered the Ministry of External Affairs, “are fake and completely fabricated.” If a tweet can be described as frothing at the mouth, this one surely was. “This is part of a sustained disinformation campaign against India,” the ministry’s statement read. “The outlet in question is known for propagating fake narratives peddled by Pakistani intelligence.” While the Ministry of External Affairs did not clarify the basis for its claim, it could have been referring to a report in The Intercept last month that alleged, based on leaked documents from Pakistani intelligence, that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (roughly equivalent to the CIA) were “planning assassinations targeting Sikh and Kashmiri activists living in foreign countries.”
By attempting to foment conspiracy theories about “fake narratives peddled by Pakistani intelligence” and anti-India disinformation campaigns, the Indian government leaves itself open to suggestions that it is throwing stones from a glass house.
In September, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, directly accused the Indian government of being involved in Nijjar’s assassination, adding that such extrajudicial killings on foreign soil were “contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.” The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reacted to Trudeau’s claims with outrage and contempt, calling them “absurd,” accusing Canada of sheltering terrorists and alleging that the Canadian leader was acting out of political desperation, seeking to ingratiate himself with the influential Sikh diaspora.