Pannun plot: India probes US allegation to keep ties on track

“Welcome to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s Washington home,” President Joe Biden said, as he and his wife Jill Biden hosted a state dinner in honour of the leader of India on June 22. “I’ve been doing this a long time, but I don’t ever remember anybody getting a warmer welcome than this guy right here,” he went on to say, amid laughter and applause from the glitterati assembled in the White House.

An equally grand and warm welcome was waiting for Biden, whom Modi had invited to be the chief guest at the next Republic Day ceremony in New Delhi. But the US president is going to give it a miss. With the bilateral relations again under stress over the US allegation about the involvement of an official of the Government of India in a plot to kill Khalistani Sikh extremist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in New York, the White House has turned down the invitation for the US president to witness the military parade in New Delhi on January 26.

The relations between New Delhi and Washington DC were a bit strained in 2022 as India steadfastly refused to join the US-led West to slam Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine. But Modi’s landmark state visit to Washington DC added new momentum to the bilateral ties as the US moved to reverse its decades-old policy of denying advanced technologies to India. Biden also visited New Delhi from September 8 to 10 to attend the G20 summit hosted by Modi, who then invited him for a second visit in January 2024.

But what struck a jarring note was the stand the Biden Administration took after Ottawa accused India of having a role in the June 18 killing of a Khalistani Sikh terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada – expressing ‘deep concerns’, asking New Delhi to join the investigation launched in the North American country and citing the assassination as an instance of ‘transnational repression’.

Then came the allegation that New Delhi was trying to hatch a conspiracy to kill Pannun, a Canadian American citizen who was declared a terrorist in India in 2020, in New York. Though New Delhi dismissed Ottawa’s claim, it launched a probe into the allegation by the US, signalling its intent to keep the ties on track. But will the Biden Administration reciprocate?