The US on Tuesday said it continues to expect accountability from India based on the results of the enquiry being conducted by New Delhi on the allegations made by Washington about an Indian government hand in the aborted plan to assassinate Khalistani advocate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun last June.
The state department’s principal deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, was responding to questions on The Washington Post report that said the then RAW chief, Samant Goel, had approved the hit job and suggested that national security adviser Ajit Doval was aware of this attempt to take out an India-baiter on foreign soil.
"We continue to expect accountability from the Government of India based on the results of the Indian inquiry committee’s work, and we are regularly working with them and enquiring for additional updates. We’ll also continue to raise our concerns directly with the Indian government at senior levels, but beyond that I’m not going to parse into this further and will defer to the department of justice," Patel said in response to a question on how concerned the US was with the WaPo article that "revealed that Indian Prime Minister Modi’s inner circle, including spy chief Samant Goel and even the national security adviser, were aware of the assassination plot on a Sikh activist in New York".
India has officially dismissed the WaPo report as "unsubstantiated", flagging the ongoing investigation to look into the security concerns raised by the US.
WaPo, in its editorial on the case, said: "India should get to the bottom of this appalling murder-for-hire case — and the United States should make clear that it will not tolerate such crimes within its borders", alleging that the Biden administration is treating the India case with kid gloves.
The editorial noted that the administration has not imposed "expulsions, sanctions or other penalties" and has placed on record that a US delegation that travelled to New Delhi several weeks ago for an update on the probe returned with little evidence of meaningful progress.
Clubbing the Pannun case with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, the editorial noted that "both cases mark a serious and disturbing escalation in transnational repression — governments brazenly attempting to punish, kidnap or assassinate critics, activists, dissidents and journalists far beyond their own borders, violating the laws and norms of other countries with impunity. The practice has become alarmingly frequent, including in the United States".
While agreeing with the Biden administration’s policy to deepen US engagement with India, The Post said: "India must live up to Mr Modi’s claim that democracy 'runs in our veins'. This means treating India’s minorities with respect and dignity, a test on which it is clearly failing. It also means demanding accountability for wrongdoing. The assassination plot cries out for a full and honest investigation that has yet to be carried out."
