Indian transgression

The plot thickens in the Sikhs assassination case as Ottawa has now pointed a finger at India's Home Minister Amit Shah for complicity. A leading American daily says that Shah was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada. The same testimony has been endorsed by Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison who informed a parliamentary panel of the same, pushing the enigma of rightful prosecution into a new unchartered territory. While India denies any wrongdoing, it finds itself stuck in a plethora of accusations emanating from the US, apart from the reports that it carried out more than 20 targeted killings inside Pakistan.

The extermination in Canada of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the indictment in the US of Indian intelligence sleuth Vikash Yadav for directing a murder plot against another Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun have torpedoed diplomacy to a great extent. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American legislators are up in arms, calling for bringing the culprits to book as it is tantamount to a breach of sovereignty, besides flaunting international law and norms of civilised state-centric engagement. In a denial mode thus far, Delhi cannot just get away with knee-jerk reactions and must come to address these fissures in all seriousness.

Perhaps, India has nursed an attitude problem wherein it wants to browbeat its adversaries and take them to task at home and abroad. The unrest in the ethnic, religious and communal realms – whereby Delhi wants to implement a common code of societal interaction by snubbing the sentiments of minorities and denying them their rights – is now an international issue. This also constitutes a violation of its own laws. The disgust that the Hindutva ideology has furthered is a case in point, cornering India's egalitarian civil society. The way forward for India is to watch its steps, and not to go on intimidating minorities and transgressing diplomatic norms. The least auto-correction needed is to account for overseas misadventures.