Nijjar killing highlights new age of assassination
In a recent Byline Times piece I argued that the threat of foreign influence does not always come from the states one expects.1
The dispute between Canada and India is a case in point, one democracy accusing another of undertaking covert action in its most extreme form.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed last week that ‘agents of the government of India’ had assassinated Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.2 Canada subsquently expelled an diplomat, Pavan Kumar Rai, who was reportedly the station chief of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).3
Nijjar certainly was of interest to Indian intelligence. In 2020, the National Investigation Agency issued a substantial reward for information leading to his apprehension.4
While the Indian Government has denied responsibility for Nijjar’s killing, the response from across the Indian political spectrum has otherwise been bullish, as the Guardian reports:
“They are so quick to judge other countries, so blind to their own,” said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. “Hello? The two foremost practitioners of extraterritorial assassinations in the last 25 years have been Israel and the US. Any mirrors available in the west?”5
This response does nothing to counter the suggestion that India has embraced the Israeli model, as some R&AW officials have long advocated, according to the Telegraph.6
Tharoor’s point does have force, however. The precedents for the Niijar killing include not only Russian Novichok poisonings, and the Saudi dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, but also the drone strikes and other targeted killings of the War on Terror.
As covert action researcher Rory Cormac told the Economist, ‘With every high-profile killing the taboo erodes a bit; authoritarian regimes are becoming more brazen in challenging liberal norms and democracies’ resort to targeted killings has emboldened other states.’7
Canada’s willingness to expose such activity, despite the geopolitical ramifications, is one bright spot in this bleak picture. Tentative moves by the Biden administration to rein in US drone strikes are another.8
Cormac expects that ‘India will deny and get away with it in big scheme of things.’9 That is probably true in terms of formal legal accountability, but I am inclined to agree with Jeff Stein that those who embrace assassination under-estimate the fateful path on which they are setting out.
America’s results in Vietnam and Iran, not to mention Afghanistan and Iraq, speak for themselves. Putin, who obviously needs to watch his back, is paying for assassinations abroad, repression at home and overreach in Ukraine. Netanyahu and his occupation-happy thugs look to be on the ropes. Even MBS, the murderous, modernizing caliph of Riyadh, has to live a very guarded life: there are countless princes who would like to take him down.10
The US officially banned assassinations in 1975, a prohibition which has been eroding since the 1980s as Luca Trenta has documented.11 Nevertheless, it is worth remembering the climate in which the ban was imposed, one in which the revelation of CIA attempts to kill Fidel Castro had fuelled competing theories that either the CIA programme itself or Cuban retaliation were to blame for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The lesson of the 1960s is that governments which undermine the norm against assassination may have most to fear from its demise.
Tom Griffin, ‘Government Stonewalling on Transparency on Foreign Influence Undermines its Tough Rhetoric on Chinese Spying’, Byline Times, 25 September 2023.
Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai, Justin Trudeau Accuses India of a Killing on Canadian Soil, New York Times, 18 September 2023.
Who is Pavan Kumar Rai? Expelled Punjab cadre IPS officer on deputation as Indian diplomat in Canada, The Statesman, 20 September 2023.
Devesh K. Pandey, Khalistan outfit’s chief Nijjar was wanted by the NIA and Punjab Police in multiple cases, The Hindu, 19 September 2023.
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, Canada assassination claim sparks rare consensus in India’s polarised politics and media, The Guardian, 28 September 2023.
Ben Farmer and Samaan Lateef, Inside the shadowy Indian spy agency at the heart of Canada killing row, Telegraph, 24 September 2023.
States are becoming more brazen about killing foes abroad, The Economist, 26 September 2023.
Charlie Savage, Biden Rules Tighten Limits on Drone Strikes, New York Times, 1 July 2023.
Rory Cormac, Twitter, 19 September 2023.
Jeff Stein, The Perilous Path of Assassinations, SpyTalk, 25 September 2023.
Luca Trenta, Death by Reinterpretation: Dynamics of Norm Contestation and the US Ban on Assassination in the Reagan Years, Journal of Global Security Studies, Volume: 6, Issue: 4.