The opinions expressed in The Lawrentian are those of the students, faculty and community members who wrote them. The Lawrentian does not endorse any opinions piece except for the staff editorial, which represents a majority of the editorial board. The Lawrentian welcomes everyone to submit their own opinions. For the full editorial policy and parameters for submitting articles, please refer to the about section.
The Indian government assassinated a Candian citizen on Canadian soil, and we should all be concerned about it. On June 18, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a plumber and leader of a local temple, was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, by three masked gunmen. This month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a credible link between the Indian government and the assassination, which he had confronted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about at the G20 summit in Delhi. India and Canada have since expelled each other’s top diplomats, and tensions are rising.
Nijjar was a Sikh man who fled persecution in India after agitating for the establishment of a Sikh-majority state in the ethnically Punjabi regions of Northern India and Pakistan. Currently, Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan have divided the area amongst themselves. The Khalistan movement began in the 1950s, shortly after the partition of British India, and picked up steam in the 1980s after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards and 8-17,000 Indian Sikhs were murdered in retaliation.
Nijjar was accused of terrorism by Indian politicians, including Modi and Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh, a claim rejected by Canadian intelligence agencies. The charge of terrorism is particularly ironic coming from two members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is a far-right wing Hindu-supremacist party currently in power, which relies on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary organization which carries out the “dirty work” of the BJP. The RSS has praised Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and has carried out dozens of murderous riots against Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, from the 1950s to the 2020s, as recently as 2021, and in all parts of the country. This is also the party of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who threatened to seize the property of journalists who reported on the Indian government’s failure to respond to the COVID-19 Delta variant.
I don’t know if Nijjar was guilty of what the Indian government accused him of. It doesn’t matter. Everyone is entitled to a fair trial. To assassinate a citizen of a foreign country on foreign soil because of their political activities is an act of terrorism. When Chile’s intelligence agency assassinated its former ambassador, Orlando Letelier, in Washington, D.C. in 1976, that was terrorism. This is no different.
If Modi gets away with this, the implications are terrifying. Not only would Nijjar’s family be denied justice, but it would also send the message that a country has the right to assassinate citizens of other countries due to political activities. It would embolden the RSS to take more extreme actions against India’s Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. It would be an international disgrace.
Fascism is not coming to India; it is already there. It should not be forgotten that Modi, who was then Chief Minister of Gujarat, bears direct responsibility for the pogroms against Muslims in Ahmedabad in 2002, which killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands. Not only did he get away with it, but he was rewarded with high approval ratings, easy reelections and a promotion to Prime Minister. If he gets away with this, India slides further into fascism and is emboldened to export it.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Narendra Modi is not India. India is a beautiful and diverse country with a rich history, and India deserves better than a fascist government. Modi and his minions, including the BJP Chief Ministers of Indian states and the leadership of the RSS, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made to stand before the International Criminal Court (ICC). President Joe Biden should cut off military aid until this happens. Fascism is preventable. Don’t wait until it’s too late.