Why US may not let go of murder-for-hire plot with India

Nikhil Gupta, the Indian national at the heart of a India-US diplomatic firestorm over the foiled plot to kill a Khalistan separatist, was extradited by the Czech Republic to the US last week, pushing the case back into the limelight after the lull that preceded the Lok Sabha polls.According to his unsealed indictment by the US justice department last year, Gupta hired a hitman — at the instance of an Indian government official — to murder on US soil Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and India-designated terrorist who has dual US-Canadian nationality.Gupta, who was detained by Czech and US authorities after he landed in Prague in June last year, allegedly had in mind four Sikh targets in North America, one of which was Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was shot dead last year in the Vancouver area, according to Canadian authorities, in another murder-for-hire case orchestrated by an Indian government official. medium111108878“This defendant has been extradited for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate a US citizen on American soil,” said FBI director Christopher Wray on June 17. “The FBI will not tolerate attempts by foreign nationals, or anyone else for that matter, to repress constitutionally-protected freedoms in the US. We will continue to work with our partners at home and abroad to protect our citizens and these sacred rights.”India may have designated Pannun as a terrorist but for US authorities, he’s an American national and a political activist who was targeted, as deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said, for exercising a quintessential American right: his freedom of speech. On June 17, Gupta was produced in a federal court in New York where he pleaded not guilty.By design or happenstance?The announcement by the Czech justice ministry about Gupta having been extradited coincided with the arrival in India of US national security adviser (NSA) Jake Sullivan, the White House point person in efforts to get New Delhi to act against the Indian official who masterminded the plot. The main purpose of Sullivan’s visit was to undertake a review along with his counterpart Ajit Doval of the initiative on critical and emerging technology (iCET) but it was expected that he would raise the Pannun case.On his way to the G7 summit in Italy, Sullivan had said the US would continue to raise the issue with India at very high levels but neither side confirmed if it did come up in Sullivan’s engagements in India on June 17. His arrival was also preceded by an interesting set of events.From the announcement made by Czech justice minister Pavel Blazek on June 17, it’s learnt that Gupta’s extradition was approved on June 3, a day before the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls. It was only 11 days later, and just three days before Sullivan’s visit to India, that he was flown to the US from Prague in a special flight. VIDEO | Czech police releases visuals of Nikhil Gupta being extradited to the US.

India national Nikhil Gupta, accused of being involved in a murder-for-hire plot against Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, was extradited to the US from the Czech Republic on… pic.twitter.com/uZtcMypcRC

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 17, 2024 These disclosures were made by Blazek on the day Sullivan landed in India for what was the Biden administration’s first high-level engagement with the new NDA government. The same day, a group of Democrat senators wrote to secretary of state Antony Blinken for a stronger response to the alleged Indian involvement in the plot.These developments meant that the murder-for-hire case cast a shadow over the India-US engagements, even though both sides took the Fifth on whether the issue was raised in the talks. This was obvious also from the media coverage that focused more on the Pannun case than the iCET talks that saw the two sides pledging action to dismantle regulatory barriers against strategic technology and defence-industrial cooperation.The Indian side, if not the Americans as well, was apparently not keen to talk about the Pannun case in public. Sullivan had no media engagement during his visit, a rarity for a US official at that level. It suited the US more of course that the sequence of events leading up to the visit, by design or plain coincidence, foregrounded the Pannun plot, as Washington seeks action against the India-based conspirators.What happens now?There will be more pressure on India in the coming months to bring to justice the Indian official who has already been identified by a Washington Post report. The US justice department sees Gupta’s extradition as a vital step towards justice and has said it won’t tolerate attempts to silence or harm US citizens.The Indian government formed a committee in November to probe the US allegations but it has so far not made any of its findings public. This may become untenable as the Biden administration itself comes under renewed pressure to seek accountability from India.A group of Democrat senators led by Jeff Merkley, who is also a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to Blinken calling for a strong diplomatic response, following the “credible allegations” about the involvement of an Indian official in the plot. They have sought talks with the state department on follow-up action, asking the administration to send a “clear message” that there will be consequences for such behaviour.Watch: All you need to know about Nikhil Gupta medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/VuILy3lEC20?si=4Jgsqgx2wY14Kyi-“It is imperative that we take an unequivocal stand against such a threat to the rights of a US citizen and violation of US sovereignty, which are examples of India’s increasingly irresponsible efforts to silence critics of its government among its diaspora around the world,” said the senators in their official communication.With the US election still some distance away, it may be too early for India to think in terms of waiting out the storm. The problem for India also is that the Pannun case is not just a one-off.Canada may soon reveal more information about the alleged involvement of Indian officials in the Nijjar killing, piling on the pressure upon India to probe a similar case it has ignored so far. An ABC documentary last week also claimed to uncover details about how an Indian “nest of spies” targeted Sikh separatists in Australia. The report further claimed four such spies masquerading as diplomats were expelled by Australia.Will it impact ties?While it may look like the relationship is in for a bumpy ride, it’s unlikely the two countries will allow the partnership for “global good” to be stymied by the Pannun issue. A mature and nuanced India-US relationship, marked by what external affairs minister S Jaishankar calls structural soundness, should be able to sail through a few blips, if handled carefully.This has reflected in how, unlike what has happened between India and Canada, both sides have quietly worked together in the Pannun case without descending into a public slanging match. Jaishankar has also defended the compartmentalisation of India’s responses to the US and Canada by stressing how the US has not just provided actionable information about the plot — but also, unlike Canada, not defended extremism in the name of freedom of speech.Watch: Canada honours Nijjar in parliament medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/KPHVTxqfHs0?si=O5slVo_pBsp28Js5It’s significant Sullivan didn’t speak about the case in public, which he was widely expected to, during his visit. There will of course be apprehensions here about the US using the case as a bargaining chip to extract concessions on contentious issues, especially those in the economic sector.Both sides need each other: The US for a bulwark against an increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific and India for access to cutting-edge technology crucial for its own growth and security. Sullivan’s visit saw both sides reaffirming their commitment to iCET, the next big thing in the relationship which might act as a guiding framework for further development of ties, and pledging “concrete” action against regulatory barriers to strategic technology partnership.That having been said, India will have to find a way to address the US quest for justice in the case. The issue has been raised at the highest level — between Joe Biden and Narendra Modi — and going by the tone and tenor of the voices emerging from the US, not least the justice department, the Biden administration will have no option but to pursue the matter with India to its logical conclusion, which is the criminal prosecution of those who orchestrated the plot from India.As the senators warned in their letter to Blinken, any attempt at scapegoating — like only blaming a rogue operative — won’t work.