The assassination of a Canadian Sikh citizen – allegedly at the behest of the Narendra Modi government – and its alleged plot to kill an American Sikh citizen are sending shock waves across the Sikh community and the larger Indian diaspora. Many believe that these two instances are merely the tip of the iceberg in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to silence critics abroad, which now includes frontal attacks on Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).
We’re glad that several US lawmakers recognise the seriousness of the situation and are beginning to question President Biden’s cozy and unconditional relationship with Modi.
This was evident at the recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing titled, ‘Transnational Repression: Authoritarians Targeting Dissenters Abroad,’ where several senators brought up their concerns about the transgressions of the Modi regime.
Also, in an unprecedented move, five Indian-American lawmakers came together for the first time to issue a joint statement expressing their concerns about the plot to assassinate an American Sikh citizen.
Unfortunately, there are disturbing signs that the Biden administration, anxious to put bilateral relations back on the rail, may be ready to settle for a mere promise by the Modi government to investigate the foiled plot – which will, in all probability, result in finding scapegoats and absolving the government of all responsibility.
That would send a terrible signal to activists who have been speaking out against the Modi regime’s systematic violations of human rights and religious freedom. Without a public demand by the US administration that the Indian government stop targeting US citizens, its long arm will continue to reach across the seas to punish its critics, by any means necessary.
Many activists are now compelled to ask, “Are we next on Modi’s target list?” and “Will the Biden administration care two hoots about us if we’re targeted by the Modi government on American soil?”
Disinfo Lab: Major enabler of transnational repression
A lot of the attacks on HfHR by the Modi government and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are fuelled by reports published by the Twitter handle ‘Disinfo Lab’ (DL) – not to be confused with EU Disinfo Lab – which was the subject of a detailed exposé in the Washington Post recently.
HfHR had hitherto steered clear of DL’s so-called dossiers, which are mostly personal attacks dressed up as investigative journalism. Neither did we have any reason to take DL’s social media attacks seriously. And, we had brushed off DL’s elaborate flow charts purporting to prove non-existent conspiracies as the work of a fringe group crying out for attention.
So it was a wake-up call for us when Smriti Irani, a senior minister in the Modi government, went on India’s national TV in June 2023 to embellish and broadcast DL’s claim that Sunita Viswanath, our executive director, was part of an international conspiracy with Rahul Gandhi and George Soros to “destroy India.” It is only then that it dawned on us that DL is more than a fringe group and has many blind followers (andh bakhts) among India’s political elite and Modi supporters.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here .