Why India needs to be pro-active against global Khalistani networks

It may still be uncharitable for critics of the Narendra Modi leadership to claim that the government had failed the nation on the global Khalistani networks, or that it was all seen as providing the much-needed diversion from the ‘Adani episode’ nearer home. Yet, there is no denying the fact that the government did not do enough to impress upon ‘friendly’ Western capitals, be it Washington or London, Ottawa or Canberra, to do what was needed under global commitments to end terrorism than listening to India’s periodic and punctuated ‘ranting’ — or, what they may see only as much and nothing more.

When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in New Delhi recently, the government said that PM Modi had taken up Khalistanis vandalising Indian symbols in that country. There was nothing by way of what the guest had to say in response — or, a quick follow-up on what the Albanese government did soon after his return home. At least, there is nothing in the public domain to show that Albanese gave serious consideration to his Indian counterpart’s concerns, expressed at official discussions in the host capital.

The same applies to India’s earlier messaging to the Canadian government over similar acts of Khalistani vandalism in that country. That should also be the fate of what happened in London, when the national tricolour at the Indian High Commission was dishonoured, following reports of the Punjab state police in hot pursuit of Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh, leader of the Waris Panjab De outfit. The question is if the 30-year-old would end up becoming the new-generation icon of the Khalistani movement, both far and wide, as the forgotten Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was to an earlier one, removed by two.

Compared to London, which brings back historic memories to every Indian mind, the Indian consulate in San Diego is not in the US capital, and the attack there made less news. The same cannot be said of the Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa having to cancel a public engagement. This particular one, at least, the terror-sympathisers in that country and elsewhere would be celebrating

Reading out the ‘Riot Act’

It is one thing for India to blame Pakistani ISI for the slow but sure revival of the Khalistani movement over the past several years, when that nation was/is in deep economic distress and the world, too, would not relish catching Pindi at it, if it still hoped for IMF kind of global bail-out. India still needs to read out the ‘Riot Act’ to our Western friends, on the rise in what could be termed as preparations of a known terror movement with a proven past.

It requires greater courage and conviction for the government to take on its allies on what matters more for the nation than the kind of larger policy issues over which External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, for instance, has been quibbling over in Europe and elsewhere. While standing up in the name of the nation’s economic security by defying unilateral Western sanctions and procuring cheap Russian oil is no mean achievement, national security, in more concrete physical form, is of greater importance.

India needs to rise as a nation and people for achieving the goals viz the entire world, and not just Pakistan. The responsibility rests with the leadership. Indira Gandhi, despite all what her critics might say now, did it so very convincingly as political diplomacy over the successful ‘Bangladesh War’ was peaking, way back in 1971. As Prime Minister, BJP’s very own Atal Bihari Vajpayee did it twice in a short span — first over ‘Pokhran-II’ (1998) and later over the ‘Kargil War’, just a year later, in 1999.

La Affaire Kanishka

India needs to recall even more and always remember how successive governments in Canada, for instance, continued to brush aside New Delhi’s concerns and complaints about the slow pace of investigations into the Khalistani attack on Air-India’s ‘Emperor Kanishka’ with 329 people on board. That was in June 1985, the worst terror-strike in the air until then.

Leave aside India’s shock and surprise as much about the Canadian government’s callousness and the world’s indifference in the matter, the government needs to compare the pitiable Indian plight against the way the US and the rest of the West have been able to bulldoze third nations, especially Third World nations that are placed in near-similar circumstances. If — and only if — the US had taken the Kanishka bombing seriously and studied further possibilities, it could have avoided 9/11, which came about 16 years later.

New Delhi’s appeals against terrorism, whether in the UN or elsewhere, too have centred only on the adversarial neighbour. It pertains to curbing terror-financing and black-listing an individual or organisation to one more of UNSC resolutions. India has not asked what individual host-nations had done to curb the internationalisation of anti-India terrorism on their territory.

Imagine the post-9/11 situation in which the US has been telling Pakistan that it was harbouring anti-American terrorists and how it followed it up on the same. India cannot launch a ‘Surgical Strike’ of the PoK kind against any of them, at least not yet. But there are other diplomatic ways for India to pressure them, especially when they seem wanting India more on their side, be it on unilateral sanctions against Russia, or more so against an ‘expansionist China’, which anyway is not a friend of India.

The writer is a Chennai-based policy analyst & political commentator. Views expressed are personal.

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