The In­dian façade has been torn apart into smithereens. The pre­var­i­ca­tion of the In­dian Min­istry of Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs in the wake of Cana­dian Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau, US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, British Prime Min­is­ter Rishi Sunak, and the Aus­tralian and New Zealand gov­ern­ments men­tion­ing In­di­a’s ex­cur­sion into ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings, con­ceived and ex­e­cuted at the high­est ech­e­lons of the gov­ern­ment of In­dia has been si­lenced by the fil­ing of a se­ri­ous in­dict­ment by the US gov­ern­ment in an Amer­i­can law court. Com­ing on the heels of the Cana­dian cred­i­ble ev­i­dence pos­tu­late, In­dia is in the dock. The Sikhs, as a party to the episodes in view of their stand on Sikh sov­er­eignty, should now gain a foothold in mus­ter­ing an in­ter­na­tional probe, pushed by any or all of these coun­tries un­der the aegis of the United Na­tions. The World Sikh News ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh writes a sting­ing ed­i­to­r­ial af­ter the re­cent in­dict­ment by the US Jus­tice De­part­ment.

Over the last 40 years, Sikh hu­man rights groups, po­lit­i­cal par­ties, re­li­gious bod­ies, and in­di­vid­ual ac­tivists like Jaswant Singh Khalra, risk­ing their lives have doc­u­mented hun­dreds upon thou­sands of cases of ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings by the Pun­jab po­lice and In­dian par mil­i­tary and other forces. Ha­rass­ment, tor­ture, and de­ten­tions have been chron­i­cled metic­u­lously. Much of this has been taken note of by the In­dian courts and even the Na­tional Hu­man Rights Com­mis­sion. How­ever, all of it has been dis­missed with a re­frain by gov­ern­ments of the day in In­dia.

Wherein courts have taken no­tice, they have rarely caught the bull by its horns though we do have cer­tain sem­blance of jus­tice here and there. In the in­fa­mous Nako­dar killings cases, the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court, in a re­cent or­der has ac­cepted the state plea of the files hav­ing been lost and or­dered an in­quiry by the po­lice at the same level as the per­pe­tra­tors.  The pain of the af­fected fam­i­lies is pal­pa­ble.

This may not be pos­si­ble now. The Pan­do­ra’s box will open. Sikh ac­tivists in the Di­as­pora and in home­land Pun­jab will re­open “The In­dian Gov­ern­men­t’s Files of In­jus­tice” and ask their re­spec­tive gov­ern­ments, rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and even the United Na­tions to sit up and take no­tice.

Sikh ac­tivists in the Di­as­pora and in home­land Pun­jab will re­open “The In­dian Gov­ern­men­t’s Files of In­jus­tice” and ask their re­spec­tive gov­ern­ments, rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and even the United Na­tions to sit up and take no­tice.

In the heart of the so-called world’s largest democ­racy, a chill­ing rev­e­la­tion un­folds, cast­ing a long, sin­is­ter shadow be­yond the bor­ders of In­dia, reach­ing into the very core of coun­tries revered for their ad­her­ence to jus­tice and free­dom. The re­cent in­dict­ment in the United States, in­volv­ing Nikhil Gupta in an al­leged as­sas­si­na­tion plot, is not just an iso­lated le­gal skir­mish but a man­i­fes­ta­tion of a much darker, more pro­found strug­gle.

The in­dict­ment re­veals har­row­ing de­tails, in­clud­ing the cold-blooded killing of Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar, a promi­nent ad­vo­cate for Sikh rights. His as­sas­si­na­tion, ex­e­cuted with chill­ing pre­ci­sion, is not an iso­lated act but part of a broader cam­paign to in­tim­i­date and elim­i­nate voices of dis­sent within the Sikh com­mu­nity. This dis­turb­ing pat­tern is fur­ther ex­em­pli­fied by the at­tempted mur­der-for-hire plot in the United States, a bla­tant trans­gres­sion of le­gal and moral bound­aries by those al­legedly linked to the In­dian gov­ern­ment.

Though the US in­dict­ment does not men­tion a name, it is quite ev­i­dent that it refers to coun­sel, a dual cit­i­zen of the US and Canada Gur­pat­want Singh Pannu.

What is equally alarm­ing is the re­sponse, or rather the lack of it, from the In­dian gov­ern­ment when con­fronted by in­ter­na­tional pow­ers. High-level diplo­matic en­gage­ments by Canada, the U.S., and other mem­bers of the Five Eyes in­tel­li­gence al­liance have con­sis­tently raised con­cerns over these in­ci­dents. Yet, the In­dian ad­min­is­tra­tion’s re­sponses have been a mix of de­nial and de­flec­tion, of­ten cloaked in the rhetoric of na­tional se­cu­rity and anti-ter­ror­ism. Such dis­missals not only un­der­mine the sever­ity of the is­sue but also erode the trust and co­op­er­a­tion es­sen­tial in in­ter­na­tional re­la­tions.

These ac­tions and re­sponses paint a pic­ture of a state that, while parad­ing as a cham­pion of democ­racy and hu­man rights on the global stage, si­mul­ta­ne­ously en­gages in prac­tices that starkly con­tra­dict these val­ues. The tar­get­ing of peace­ful Sikh ac­tivists ad­vo­cat­ing for their rights through ex­tra­ju­di­cial means is a bla­tant vi­o­la­tion of the very prin­ci­ples In­dia claims to up­hold.

In­di­a’s ac­tions and re­sponses paint a pic­ture of a state that, while parad­ing as a cham­pion of democ­racy and hu­man rights on the global stage, si­mul­ta­ne­ously en­gages in prac­tices that starkly con­tra­dict these val­ues.

For decades, the Sikh com­mu­nity, both within In­dia and in the di­as­pora, has cham­pi­oned the cause of self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, a right en­shrined in the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights. Yet, their peace­ful and de­mo­c­ra­tic ad­vo­cacy has been met with un­speak­able vi­o­lence and sup­pres­sion, a nar­ra­tive deeply rooted in the blood-stained streets of Pun­jab dur­ing the 1980s and 90s. This re­cent case in the U.S. is a dis­turb­ing echo of those times, sug­gest­ing a brazen dis­re­gard for in­ter­na­tional norms and sov­er­eignty by cer­tain In­dian en­ti­ties.

The in­dict­ment speaks vol­umes about the lengths to which In­dia is will­ing to go to si­lence dis­sent and free­dom of speech, fun­da­men­tal rights that form the bedrock of democ­ra­cies world­wide. This ex­tra­ju­di­cial ap­proach to quell the Sikh voice for free­dom not only jeop­ar­dizes the in­di­vid­u­als di­rectly tar­geted but also un­der­mines the sanc­tity of the na­tions that host these vi­brant Sikh com­mu­ni­ties.

This re­cent case in the U.S. is a dis­turb­ing echo of those times, sug­gest­ing a brazen dis­re­gard for in­ter­na­tional norms and sov­er­eignty by cer­tain In­dian en­ti­ties.

U.S. At­tor­ney Damian Williams has re­port­edly said: “As al­leged, the de­fen­dant con­spired from In­dia to as­sas­si­nate, right here in New York City, a U.S. cit­i­zen of In­dian ori­gin who has pub­licly ad­vo­cated for the es­tab­lish­ment of a sov­er­eign state for Sikhs, an eth­nore­li­gious mi­nor­ity group in In­dia. I am grate­ful that my Of­fice and our law en­force­ment part­ners neu­tral­ized this deadly and out­ra­geous threat. We will not tol­er­ate ef­forts to as­sas­si­nate U.S. cit­i­zens on U.S. soil, and stand ready to in­ves­ti­gate, thwart, and pros­e­cute any­one who seeks to harm and si­lence Amer­i­cans here or abroad.”

As Sikhs, our his­tory is re­plete with tales of re­silience and stand­ing up against op­pres­sion. The ac­tions as al­leged in the in­dict­ment are not merely an at­tack on a few in­di­vid­u­als but an as­sault on the very prin­ci­ples of democ­racy and jus­tice that Sikhs, and in­deed all free­dom-lov­ing peo­ple, hold dear.

The World Sikh News, with its un­flinch­ing com­mit­ment to re­port­ing truth calls upon global lead­ers, hu­man rights or­ga­ni­za­tions, and every ad­vo­cate of democ­racy to un­equiv­o­cally con­demn these al­leged ac­tions and de­mand ac­count­abil­ity from those re­spon­si­ble. We also urge the In­dian gov­ern­ment to in­tro­spect and align its ac­tions with the de­mo­c­ra­tic val­ues it pro­fesses to up­hold.

This is not just about the Sikh com­mu­nity or In­dia; it’s a global con­cern. When a gov­ern­ment, or its agents, al­legedly take the law into their own hands in for­eign lands, it sets a dan­ger­ous prece­dent, threat­en­ing the very fab­ric of in­ter­na­tional re­la­tions and mu­tual re­spect among na­tions.

This is not just about the Sikh com­mu­nity or In­dia; it’s a global con­cern. When a gov­ern­ment, or its agents, al­legedly take the law into their own hands in for­eign lands, it sets a dan­ger­ous prece­dent, threat­en­ing the very fab­ric of in­ter­na­tional re­la­tions and mu­tual re­spect among na­tions.

In sol­i­dar­ity with those who tire­lessly work to­wards a more just and eq­ui­table world, we re­main stead­fast in our pur­suit of truth and jus­tice. The Sikh spirit, un­de­terred by the shad­ows of op­pres­sion, will con­tinue to shine a light on these is­sues, ad­vo­cat­ing for a world where free­dom and dig­nity are not just ideals but re­al­i­ties for all.