Terrorism and Western asylum policy

Rajesh Ramachandran

IS it the Devyani Khobragade moment all over again? Has the US administration made an assessment of PM Narendra Modi’s defeat in the 2024 General Election and decided to have a breach in relations with the current dispensation, as it did with the Manmohan Singh government in 2013? It does not seem so. There was no doubt about the UPA’s defeat in 2014, definitely not in the mind of its closest foreign partner for whom Manmohan Singh had sacrificed the Congress’ biggest ally in 2008. The Congress was so sure of defeat that many top ministers refused to even contest the 2014 polls.

The immediate beneficiary is, of course, Pannun, for his offence of criminal intimidation is no longer being probed.

Nobody is sure of the Modi government’s defeat right now. Yes, there is every possibility of the BJP losing many seats in states where it had a near-perfect tally. But a changing of the guard is not a foregone conclusion, as it was in 2013. A tough battle lies ahead. So, the US Government could not have picked up the defence of a designated terrorist to push PM Modi away from a tight embrace, as it did with Manmohan Singh. Last time around, it had arrested an Indian diplomat and stripped and cavity-searched her like a petty criminal while she was on her way back after dropping her child off at school. These two situations do not seem similar. But there is indeed tension in the air.

More plausible seems to be the US attempt to quickly cover up a designated terrorist’s slip-up that should have warranted immediate arrest and deportation. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the self-styled advocate-in-chief of Khalistan, had on November 4 issued a video message asking Sikhs not to fly Air India because there could be a “threat to their lives”. What else could this be if not a threat to blow up Air India aircraft, particularly in the context of the past experience of Khalistan terrorists bombing an Air India aircraft, killing 329 passengers and crew in 1985?

Any credible terror-fighting agency would have at least called Pannun for a round of questioning, even if it did not handcuff him or search his cavities. But instead, two days after this terrorist was booked by the National Investigation Agency in India, the Western media (or videshi godi media, to borrow a Left Liberal label, considering this was as bad a plant as the Delhi Police would normally do on the desi godi media) splashed a story of a plot to kill Pannun. Does an assassination bid on Pannun absolve him of the crime of threatening to blow up Air India aircraft and its passengers? It seems so. Now, the stories emanating from the US officialdom only talk of the plot, a sealed indictment against a perpetrator filed in a New York court and an assassin being allowed to flee the US.

Secessionist violence in many parts of India, particularly in Punjab, has always been indirectly promoted by Western agencies offering asylum to perpetrators of violence. The Pannun case just proved that this support is not indirect, but direct; that even after making an open threat — empty or not is of no concern to anti-terror agencies — to stop people from boarding Air India aircraft, the US administration has responded by leaking proceedings in a completely unrelated case that is a few months old. Is it to safeguard an asset against proceedings or possible deportation? Or is there a bigger game involved?

The immediate beneficiary is, of course, Pannun, for his offence of criminal intimidation is no longer being probed. But this also bolsters the attack on India by Canada and Pakistan. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau can claim that he is justified, if at all he needs a second helping of US support. At the outset, the US had had Trudeau’s back by claiming to have shared evidence with its allies in the case of Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder. But another big beneficiary of the latest attack on India over charges of targeted killings on foreign soil is Pakistan. Curiously, a day before the news of the assassination bid against Pannun was leaked, a US website — funded by the same ‘philanthropist’ who funds anti-BJP and anti-government websites in India — carried a story based on Pakistan Intelligence Bureau’s leaked documents.

This news story has made fantastic claims of Indian’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing committing murders in Pakistan. And the “compelling substantiation for the sensational claim” of the Pakistan intelligence leak was lapped up unquestioningly and disseminated as gospel truth by this website — the desi godi media seems to have influenced international journalism as well. All this when Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Quari was running amok in Rajouri-Poonch area, killing civilians, including children. It is indeed surprising that on the eve of the 26/11 anniversary, the American establishment could have so easily sidestepped all the recurring terror activities by foreign perpetrators on Indian soil to term Indian Government rogue.

The West has emboldened Israel in its pursuit of vengeance against Hamas over the October 7 attack, with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flying in to offer their support. But after India’s financial capital was attacked in 2008 and 166 people, including six Americans, were killed, no drum beaters flew in. There is still no sign of the extradition of Americans involved in planning and executing the attacks, not to mention retribution or even justice. Col R Sadatullah of the Pakistan army, who was directly involved in planning the 26/11 attacks, would have happily retired or could be writing intelligence reports to be leaked out to the American press.

So, while Quaris keep killing Indian soldiers and civilians, Headleys keep plotting Mumbai attacks and Pannuns keep threatening a redux of the Kanishka bombing, all that Indians get to hear is about taxpayers’ money getting wasted on insignificant targets. It is actually the Western asylum policy that ought to be targeted by the Indian government; it is this policy, along with Pakistani training, that fuels, funds and legitimises religious secessionist terrorism.

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