U.S. must fight growing practice of transnational repression
The charge that an Indian government employee plotted to assassinate a Sikh separatist and American citizen on U.S. soil crosses a red line for the United States. If true, it’s a grave affront to American sovereignty that demands an honest and complete investigation, with the perpetrators brought to justice and all the facts made known.
The conspiracy, described in an indictment unsealed last Wednesday, appears to be one of the most egregious recent examples of transnational repression — the practice of authoritarian regimes reaching beyond their borders to punish, kidnap or assassinate critics, activists, dissidents and journalists.
Senior Biden administration officials say the target of the plot was Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen, general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice, a group that advocates that some or all of Punjab province in northern India secede and form an independent Sikh state. The chief plotter against him in India is described in the indictment as an Indian government employee, a “Senior Field Officer” in “Intelligence.”
In May, he allegedly recruited an associate in India who has been involved in weapons and narcotics trafficking, to “orchestrate the assassination,” including hiring a killer in the United States.
The alleged plot was unfolding at the time that another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was murdered outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia. Nijjar was an associate of Pannun. Just hours after Nijjar’s June 18 murder, the chief plotter in India allegedly sent a video of his bloodied body to Pannun’s New York City address.
Canada has the largest Sikh diaspora in the world. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canada had “credible evidence” of India’s involvement in the Nijjar assassination. India called the allegations “absurd.” Canada said it furnished proof but has declined to make it public.
The United States has good reason to forge closer ties with India, a democracy and rising economic power that is a valuable counterweight to China. But much depends on how India responds to the indictment. Modi must demand from his own government full accountability for the assassination plot and bring to justice those responsible.
Meanwhile, the United States should bolster its defenses against regimes seeking to commit heinous acts here. The Freedom House database of worldwide transnational repression shows that the top 10 perpetrators are: China, Turkey, Tajikistan, Russia, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Iran and Rwanda. Inside the United States, China has been particularly brazen, trying to silence dissidents.
Yet U.S. law does not specifically criminalize or define transnational repression, making it harder to deter and respond. Congress should clarify in law that thuggish, long-arm repression won’t be tolerated here.