With news out of the US last week that an Indian national pleaded guilty to a plot to assassinate an American citizen who criticized the Indian government — all at the direction of an employee of the Indian government — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s rapprochement with Modi looks even more foolish than it already did. 

Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty to three federal counts in a US court, including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire of an American citizen on American soil. Gupta stated that he was working at the direction of an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, who was employed by the Indian cabinet secretariat, which houses the Indian foreign intelligence service known as the Research and Analysis Wing. 

Although Gupta’s primary target was an American activist, his guilty plea shines a light on the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canadian Sikh leader who was gunned down outside a gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Surrey, British Columbia in June 2023.

Gupta sent text messages boasting about Nijjar’s murder, stating that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets,” adding that in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was “now no need to wait” on killing his American target. 

This guilty plea ends any question of India’s involvement in extra-judicial and extra-territorial reprisals against members of the diaspora who are critical of the Indian government. It is now a legally established fact and a matter of official judicial record that India was involved in a plot to murder a Sikh dissident. 

The Gupta plea also basically vindicates what we have heard from Canadian officials, including the RCMP, who have publicly stated that agents of the Indian government are working with organized crime networks in Canada to commit crimes against members of the Indian diaspora in Canada, most notably Canadian Sikhs.

In a normal world, this would make the Carney government think twice about normalizing relations with India. But we’re not in a normal world. In the prime minister’s own words, we have entered “variable geometry” wherein realpolitik and pragmatic diplomacy must prevail.  

Modi does not want diplomacy with Canada, Modi wants Canada to stand down and to have India skirt any real accountability from Canadian authorities. And under Carney, the Canadian government seems more than willing to allow just that. 

When Carney made the case for “variable geometry” in an essay for The Economist, he explained how a more flexible approach in foreign policy to allow for pragmatic relationships by collaborating on shared interests was sorely needed. It made a lot of sense given everything going on in the world. 

However, it starts to make a lot less sense when those shared interests do not include the safety of your own citizens. 

Apparently, the Carney government’s realpolitik and pragmatism means actively ignoring the now legally established fact that India targets dissidents abroad for extrajudicial murder. A mere 24 hours after the news of the Gupta plea was made public, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was tweeting pictures of herself alongside her Indian counterpart — all smiles, with only Indian flags as the backdrop.

The message this sends to members of the Indian diaspora — especially Sikh Canadians — who are critical of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is that trade with India is more important than their safety and that under the Carney government, Sikh Canadian lives simply do not matter as much as those of other Canadians. 

The Carney government continues to maintain that law enforcement and national security officials are working together behind the scenes, but every single public statement from the Modi government makes that very hard to believe. The Indian government has effectively accused Canadian officials — ranging from law enforcement and national security officials to former prime minister Justin Trudeau — of making up the allegations.

As recently as just a few months ago, Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik told CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos that India does not engage in extraterritorial action and that the allegations levelled at India by the RCMP are “preposterous and absurd,” further stating that “it’s up to the RCMP to make things right” — suggesting that the RCMP is the one at fault here.

Again, in a normal world, when a representative of a foreign government tells a Canadian news program with a Canadian audience that the Canadian national police force effectively lied, one would expect there to be a robust public repudiation by the Canadian government.

Instead, the Indian high commissioner’s outrageous claims were met with cowardly silence from both Anand and Carney. 

It’s especially odd that anybody would believe that India does not target dissidents abroad when Modi himself has publicly bragged about India’s ability to inflict extrajudicial retribution, stating, “Today, even India’s enemies know: this is Modi, this is the New India. This New India comes into your home to kill you.” 

This was after Nijjar had already been gunned down in Surrey. Talk about saying the quiet part out loud.

Modi does not want diplomacy with Canada, Modi wants Canada to stand down and to have India skirt any real accountability from the Canadian government and Canadian authorities. And under Carney, the Canadian government seems more than willing to do just that. 

After all, there are rupees and dollars to be made from increased trade. But that doesn’t sound quite as good for an essay in The Economist as stating we’re in a moment of “variable geometry,” does it?

© National Observer