Canada's allegation against Amit Shah 'concerning', says US as Biden's NSA reaches out to New Delhi

Washington: A day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in Ottawa linked Indian Home Minister Amit Shah with New Delhi’s alleged operations targeting Khalistani Sikh extremists in Canada, the United States called the allegations against him “concerning”.

Even as the US State Department stopped just short of lending credence to Canada’s allegations against the political leadership of India, Washington DC reached out to New Delhi with President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan having a phone call with Ajit Doval, his counterpart in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and discussed the ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, clean energy supply chains and defence cooperation.

Doval and Sullivan discussed the regional security developments, underscoring the need for further efforts to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region and globally, according to a press release issued by the White House on Thursday. The NSAs of India and the US welcomed progress in the bilateral partnership, including through the upcoming Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) Intersessional and Indian Ocean Dialogue.  They also discussed further opportunities for closer collaboration in key domains, including clean energy supply chains and defence cooperation, added the White House.

“So, the allegations made by the Government of Canada are concerning, and we will continue to consult with the Canadian government about those allegations,” Matthew Miller, the spokesperson of the US State Department, told journalists in Washington DC on Wednesday. He was responding to a query on the views of the US government on Canada’s allegation against the home minister of India.

The Biden Administration has been nudging New Delhi to ensure that its inquiry into the allegation about the role of an officer of the Government of India in a foiled plot to kill Khalistani Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the United States should lead to “meaningful accountability”. The US officials recently had a meeting in Washington DC with the members of an inquiry committee constituted by the Government of India to probe the allegation that one of its officials – now identified as the RAW officer Vikash Yadav – had instructed Nikhil Gupta, arrested in Prague in June 2023 and now incarcerated in a prison in Brooklyn, to hire a hitman to kill Pannun, a leader of the Sikhs for Justice, in New York.

Ottawa’s claim about the role of Shah in ordering the alleged operation of the agents of the Government of India against the Khalistani Sikh extremists based in Canada was first leaked to the Washington Post, a newspaper published in the US, by David Morrison, the deputy foreign affairs minister of the Trudeau Government. Morrison leaked what the Canadian government cited as information about the alleged role of Shah in the operations against some North American country’s citizens who had been running a campaign in favour of secession of Khalistan from India. The newspaper published a report based on the leaked information.

Morrison confirmed on Tuesday that he had leaked information to a journalist of the Washington Post. “The journalist called me and asked if it was that person (Amit Shah). I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the members of the national security committee of the Canadian Parliament, referring to the allegation against the home minister of India.

The Trudeau government recently accused New Delhi’s envoy to Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, and his five colleagues of having a role in the June 18, 2023, killing of Khalistani Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who had managed to secure citizenship in Canada despite being one of the most wanted fugitive terrorists of India. New Delhi recently withdrew Verma, the High Commissioner of Canada to India, and five of its other diplomats in the North American country after denying Ottawa’s request for waiving their diplomatic immunity and making them available for questioning by the police investigators in connection with the murder of Nijjar. India also retaliated by expelling six diplomats of Canada.