“An extraordinary situation is compelling us to speak.” This was the ominous opening of an uncharacteristically candid public statement issued by Canada’s national police force about their ongoing investigations into the alleged role of Indian government agents in criminal activity on Canadian soil.
This newest bombshell development comes a little over a year since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. The Indian government has rejected the allegations and has long maintained that the Canadian government has failed to act against Sikh separatists who pose a national security threat to India.
The current investigations led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and based on evidence gathered in the Nijjar case, resulted in a new wave of recriminations and expulsion of diplomats by both countries. The latest allegations made by Canada include homicide, extortion, and other violent criminal activity.
They come amid the Narendra Modi government’s escalating crackdown on critics and minority communities at home and allegations of attempts to stifle dissent beyond its borders. The United States and Pakistan have also accused Indian intelligence agencies of targeting suspected terrorists and separatist leaders for assassination in their countries.
Prime Minister Modi even boasted about these actions in an election campaign rally in May. “Today, even India’s enemies know: This is Modi, this is the New India,” he said. “This New India comes into your home to kill you.”
The Indian government has also targeted its critics in the diaspora by canceling visas of overseas Indians and barring them from entering the country. There are also credible allegations that its agents have engaged in online disinformation campaigns against academics and activists in several countries.
These developments put into sharp focus the growing global threat of what is being called transnational repression, when governments essentially reach beyond their borders to suppress or stifle dissent. For decades, Human Rights Watch has documented how governments target human rights defenders, journalists, civil society activists, disfavored minorities, and political opponents deemed to be a security threat. Many victims are asylum seekers or recognized refugees in their place of exile.
The scope of the problem is staggering: a report Human Rights Watch published earlier this year documented 75 cases of transnational repression over the past 15 years by over two dozen governments across four regions. These cases implicate authoritarian governments primarily, but also democracies like India.
In many ways, India under Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been emboldened by the notable rise in its global standing in recent years as a key geopolitical actor. Countries including Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union have deepened economic, trade, and security ties with the country. Until these cases of transnational repression surfaced on their doorsteps, governments such as Canada were often reluctant to publicly raise human rights concerns with the Modi government.
This was clearly a misstep, the impact of which is being felt now. But there is still time for governments to correct course. The RCMP set up a multidisciplinary team in February to investigate and coordinate a response to the Nijjar case. Diaspora communities at risk should not have to wait until an extreme violent crime, like an assassination, is committed before these task forces are formed. Care also needs to be taken to ensure that such efforts do not serve to repress and undermine the rights of the very communities they seek to protect.
The breadth and scope of transnational repression necessitates a concerted effort by governments to establish a national system to investigate cases along with specialized training for policymakers, diplomats, and bureaucrats about ongoing threats.
These steps are critical in ensuring that diaspora communities find genuine safety for themselves and their families wherever they live. Governments that support human rights and fundamental freedoms shouldn’t wait until diaspora communities in their own countries are at risk before they’re willing to raise human rights concerns with other countries, including their allies.
