The blood on America’s hands

THE rollcall of US extra-constitutional and extra-judicial encounters around the world is legion. Afghanistan in 2001. Iraq in 2003. Syria in 2014. Limited strikes in Libya in 2015.

According to the US Congressional Research Service, the US launched 251 military interventions between 1991 — when the Cold War ended with the disintegration of the former Soviet Union — and 2022.

It took Canada’s RCMP 15 years to arrest two pro-Khalistan Sikhs for the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing.

When the Americans bombed Iraq, the destruction of the ruins of the ancient civilisation in Mesopotamia was collateral damage — but no one said a word. When the US troops hunted down Saddam Hussain, dictator extraordinaire but one who certainly did not possess any weapons of mass destruction — the Western world watched in hushed silence.

And by the time they finally left Afghanistan, after 21 years, they had succeeded in destroying tribal networks as well as playing off political leaders, which allowed the Taliban to regroup and take over the country again.

Some would say — notably, the Bangladeshis in today's Dhaka — that India did the same in 1971, which is to help break up Pakistan and create a new country.

Oh yes, the Americans got that wrong, too — read author Gary Bass's book, 'The Blood Telegram', to tell you how Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger refused to criticise the Pakistani military establishment for carrying out the repeated massacres of East Bengalis. (As for how they described Indira Gandhi, who helped East Bengali politicians spearhead the creation of Bangladesh, that's another story).

So, if anyone has been surprised this week about the utterly ham-handed manner in which the US has gone about indicting an Indian intelligence official called Vikash Yadav — who, equally ham-handedly, tried to kill US citizen and pro-Khalistani activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun; via a co-conspirator who tried to hire an American hitman to carry out the job; who, in turn, turned out to be a US undercover informer — well, then, you needn't be, even if it all sounds like a terrible Hindi movie.

Listen to what the US attorney for the southern district of New York, Damian Williams, said when the charges were unsealed in the court on Thursday: "Let this case be a warning to all those who would seek to harm and silence US citizens: We will hold you accountable, no matter who and where you are."

When you have so much blood on your hands, as the Americans have, you would imagine they would at least keep quiet.

Clearly, though, there's no place for irony or embarrassment or shame in the US establishment — at least, not when there's an ongoing do-or-die presidential campaign being fought between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

It's said to be a truism that Democrat administrations have been traditionally tougher on India than Republicans — perhaps, the Republicans don't care as much about human rights, and would rather make more money for themselves and the rest of America, which suits the Chinese just fine.

You would have thought that Joe Biden, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan would have known better than to allow a self-styled Khalistani activist to become the centre of the India-US relationship. Mystified Indians cannot help asking: Are the Americans OK with US citizens of Indian origin trying to break up India by pushing for the creation of Khalistan?

Some say the Biden-Blinken-Sullivan trio tried to tell Canada's Justin Trudeau to tone down his public criticism of the Indian government. That's another joke. Remember the Air India 'Kanishka' flight that exploded off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board, most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin? Well, it took Canada's famous police investigative agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), 15 years to arrest two pro-’Khalistan’ Sikhs in 2000 for the terror act. A third man was arrested and let off after 24 hours.

This is the selfsame RCMP which held a press conference earlier this week in Ottawa, naming Lawrence Bishnoi's criminal syndicate as being in hock to "Indian government officials" to kill Hardeep Singh Nijjar as well as another Canadian citizen called Sukhdool Singh last year. India's ambassador to Canada Sanjay Verma was named a "person of interest" and asked to leave Canada forthwith.

Certainly, this week, it has seemed as if the US and Canada have gone out of their way to make friends and influence people in India.

For sure, two wrongs don't make a right and tit-for-tat behaviour only makes the whole world a bit more blind. Vikash Yadav's gymnastics certainly cannot be condoned. So, India has tried to staunch the blood-letting and “removed” Yadav from government service. But if this process gains ground, next steps will include an Interpol red-corner notice and, perhaps, extradition. Bilateral ties will go through a rocky patch.

Meanwhile, America's — and India's — fast friend Israel is bombing Gaza back into the Stone Age, paid for, at least partly, by American taxpayers.

Notice, too, that neither Russia nor China, both permanent members in the UN Security Council, are saying that much against the Israeli bombing of Gaza and Lebanon and the targeted killing of Iran-sponsored Hamas leaders. Clearly, it suits all sides.

Vladimir Putin seems content that the world is distracted from the Russia-Ukraine war. Xi Jinping must be content that Gaza-Lebanon has taken the focus away from his salami-slicing of the South China Sea with such dexterity; as for Ladakh, Beijing simply isn't interested in talking to India about a return to status quo ante.

It is in these circumstances that Prime Minister Modi is travelling to Russia — for the second time in four months — to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan next week. Perhaps, the Americans will look askance; they have made no secret of their displeasure over the improving relationship between Delhi and Moscow, especially over the now-plateaued sale of cheap Russian oil to India in the last two years.

But with the US behaving so shabbily — and all those promises of everlasting friendship made at high noon suddenly receding into the distance — Modi may be tempted to cement ties with another leader who asks him fewer questions about what he's doing at home.

Some would say that another chapter of the games that nations play — some with alacrity, some perforce — is beginning.