Diplomatic relations between India and Canada have become extremely strained over the murder of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The Canadian government has accused Indian intelligence agencies and senior officials of the Indian High Commission in Canada of involvement in the assassination. The case of Gurupat Pannu in America is similar to this. Nijjar and Pannu were the founding leaders of ‘Sikhs for Justice’. The Indian spy agency RAW hired contract-killers to murder these pro-Khalistan leaders. This boomeranged in America. A man, controlled by an American spy agency, contacted an RAW operative’s go-between, posing as a hired assassin. He was arrested in Czechoslovakia and later extradited to the United States. A US court has summoned Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in connection with the investigation into that case. Washington Post, a leading American newspaper, has reported that Amit Shah was the one who ordered Nijjar’s murder.
America is not like Canada. The Modi government, which has persisted in denying its role in Nijjar’s murder, had to bow to US authorities. A spokesperson for the US State Department has stated that the Indian authorities have informed them that the official responsible for the Pannu case (i.e. the RAW operative) has been fired and arrested. It is clear that he was sacrificed to save Amit Shah and Doval from getting trapped. A government delegation went there to pacify the American bosses. The Modi government tried to hide all this. It was forced to admit it after the United States revealed the facts.
The authorities of the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand haven’t accepted the Modi government’s position on the Nijjar issue. They insist that the Indian government should cooperate with the Canadian police investigation. Going to another country and killing a citizen of that country is a violation of international law. It is an encroachment on the sovereignty of that country. That’s what they are saying. Remember, this is being preached by people who have done this repeatedly! But that’s another matter. The imperialist countries, masters of the world, cannot tolerate the spy organisation of a Third world dependent country sending assassins to their countries. This is one reason for their strong reactions. Some Indian media are arguing that the Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau made this an issue to secure his position in the upcoming elections. There is some truth in that. Sikhs are influential in the New Democracy Party, which helps prop up the Trudeau government. Its current chief is a Sikh. However, all this does not sufficiently explain why this affair was made public and subsequent developments.
The real issue here is that US imperialism is deliberately trying to put pressure on the Modi government. The Indian ruling classes have been close to American imperialism for some time now. But its ties with Russian imperialism are also thriving. It has always tried to improve its own position by exploiting the contention between imperialist powers. The Modi government continues to do this. Given the intensifying imperialist contention, American imperialism cannot allow much leeway for this. Therefore, it is trying to tighten the reins on the Modi government by exerting pressure in different ways. This is the real reason behind Trudeau’s public statements and the linking of Modi’s inner council guys like Amit Shah and Ajit Doval to this contract-killing business. Details are now emerging about the role US agencies played in infiltrating the student movement that overthrew Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh, in order to install their loyalist Yunus in power. There too, Modi failed to save the Hasina regime despite being her being a reliable ally. No matter how much the Sanghis preen about India being the new superpower, it is just a Third world country. An oppressed country, dependent on imperialism. Its comprador rulers cannot go beyond a limit. That is the reality revealed by this whole affair. As the Malayali saying goes, “If the shrimp jumps it will reach one’s knees, if it jumps again it will land in the pan.”
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