Opinion | The Murder of a Sikh Leader Could Be a Wake-Up Call
On Father’s Day this 12 months, two heavyset males have been loitering close to a Sikh temple in British Columbia. Then the president of the temple, a Canadian citizen and an activist named Hardeep Singh Nijjar, stepped out and climbed into his pickup truck to drive dwelling for dinner along with his household.
The 2 ready males, carrying masks, fired by means of Nijjar’s window a couple of dozen occasions. Temple members bravely ran after the gunmen, who escaped in a getaway automotive pushed by a 3rd man.
Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada has publicly asserted that the Indian authorities could also be accountable for murdering Nijjar — an explosive allegation that, if discovered to be true, needs to be a warning to Western international locations of their dealings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his more and more authoritarian authorities. India denies the accusation and calls it “absurd.”
In his preliminary assertion, Trudeau was cautious and spoke of “credible allegations of a possible hyperlink” between the homicide and the Indian authorities. However in a go to to The New York Instances on Thursday, Trudeau appeared utterly assured that the Indian authorities had been concerned.
Trudeau stated bluntly that he wished to see “quite a few folks thrown in jail,” plus “a collection of classes discovered and adjustments made to the best way Indian intelligence providers function.”
Whereas Trudeau wouldn’t share the proof tying the crime to India, I’m betting it’s strong. Nijjar, who was born in India, advocated a separatist state referred to as Khalistan to be carved from Punjab, a proposal that infuriates many Indians as a result of within the Eighties the marketing campaign for it concerned terrorism. In 2020, India labeled Nijjar, with out proof, as a terrorist and later provided a money reward for info resulting in his arrest.
Trudeau is searching for to work with India on an investigation of the incident, however the Modi authorities has escalated the strain. It stopped issuing visas to Canadians and ordered Canada to chop its diplomatic workers in India.
This episode needs to be a warning to Western leaders, together with President Biden, who’ve fawned over Modi. The final couple of a long time of travails with Vladimir Putin ought to have taught us one thing concerning the difficulties of attempting to reform nationalist authoritarians, or the perils of granting them impunity.
As Trudeau famous in his go to to The Instances, he had an obligation to behave. “When we have now credible causes to consider that this occurred, you’ll be able to’t shrug it off,” he stated.
“If we, as we do, need India to proceed down its path of democracy, of profitable rising world energy, we want to verify we’re clear concerning the tasks and the expectations that include that,” Trudeau added.
The paradox is that Nijjar doesn’t appear to have been any risk to India right now. There was a violent separatist motion supporting Khalistan within the early Eighties, and I met its leaders after I was a legislation scholar backpacking by means of India then and sleeping on the ground of the Sikh Golden Temple to economize. However that motion has fizzled, and the dream of Khalistan appears extra alive within the Sikh diaspora than in India itself.
If India is caught mendacity about its position within the killing, it’s going to have broken its worldwide standing way over Nijjar ever may have.
A international nation can overcome an assassination in a Western democracy — however provided that it comes clear. In 1984, gunmen in California assassinated a Taiwanese-American journalist, Henry Liu, after he wrote a crucial biography of Taiwan’s dictator on the time. Taiwan finally prosecuted a chief of navy intelligence for the crime and sentenced him to life imprisonment — and Taiwan and America moved previous the incident.
On this case, although, Modi isn’t displaying any signal of investigating and appears to be attempting to revenue politically, by inflaming the prickly nationalism that has carried his profession ahead to this point. He portrays himself as defender of India’s Hindu majority from Muslim jihadis or Sikh separatists — or sanctimonious Western imperialists — and this dust-up would possibly truly assist him in subsequent 12 months’s Indian elections.
Modi is an advanced determine. He is without doubt one of the hottest leaders on the earth right now, and as I wrote throughout a go to to India earlier this 12 months, he deserves credit score for financial pragmatism and considerably elevating dwelling requirements. However Modi’s authorities has additionally made India much less free, cracking down on the press and stirring a fiery Islamophobia that has led to Muslims being lynched. I fear that, like Pakistani Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq nearly half a century in the past, he’s unleashing non secular extremism that might in the end destabilize his nation.
India is so necessary that different nations shall be tempted to avert their eyes and never become involved in Canada’s quarrel with Delhi. In 2018, in response to a Russian assassination on British soil, america expelled 60 Russians, and 14 European international locations took related steps; that gained’t occur this time. However we shouldn’t give assassins a move simply because they arrive from a rustic we’re courting.
To its credit score, the Biden administration did assist Canada and referred to as on India to cooperate within the homicide investigation — though it will assist if this got here publicly from Biden himself. Elsewhere, there was largely silence and fecklessness: Australia’s prime minister declined to remark in any respect, and Britain’s international secretary tweeted pablum that didn’t even point out India.
With out prejudging the outcomes, Western international locations ought to categorically stand with Canada in calling for a good investigation of the homicide and justice for these accountable. The present worldwide silence is conspicuously loud.
Canadians deserve higher from us, and so do Indians.
