WASHINGTON: A shameless murder-for-hire conspiracy against a US national, which officials say was directed by an Indian government official, outwardly seems like a development that could upset the fragile new India-US partnership.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan stated an Indian official, whose responsibilities include intelligence and security, and Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta plotted this summer to assassinate a New York City resident who advocated for a sovereign and separate Sikh state in India.
They did so – exchanging messages with an undercover agent regarding the planned murder – even as Biden was honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a visit to the US on June 22. American authorities, after learning regarding the assassination plot in late July, demanded that India probe, a senior official stated. President Biden also dispatched his CIA head to India and raised the matter with Narendra Modi during a September meeting, outlining “the potential consequences for our bilateral ties were like threats to persist,” the official added.
Plot to Assassinate Sikh Leader in New York can Ruin India-US Relations: Experts
A top US official called the killing plot a very “serious matter” and said the US expects New Delhi to prevent such activities. Washington’s overtures to Narendra Modi were already controversial, with some saying that his Hindu nationalism and authoritarian nature made him an untrustworthy partner. Activists hold Narendra Modi responsible for religious riots in Gujarat in 2002, in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died. Narendra Modi was denied a US visa in 2005 as per a US law that stops entry to foreigner citizens who have committed “mainly severe violations of religious freedom.”
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Ashley Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the matter of sovereignty involved in attack on a US’ citizen in America, would be disturbing to authorities in the US. Experts said that so far, the New York murder plot has played out differently from a similar case in Canada in the current year. Canada said earlier in September there were “credible” charges linking Indian government agents to the June assassination of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in the country. India rejected Canada’s claim, sparking a diplomatic row while by contrast, this time New Delhi’s response to the US indictment was conciliatory, admitted it was taking the matter seriously and investigation. Many experts believed that plot to assassinate Sikh leader in New York could ruin India-US relations as the matter of sovereignty involved in attack in this case.
