Why a murder plot will not turn the US away from India

In all appearances, a blatant murder-for-hire plan against a citizen of the United States, which an official of the Indian government ordered the police to claim, appears to be a development that has the potential to disrupt the delicate new cooperation between the United States and India.

An assassination attempt that was revealed in an indictment that the United States unsealed on Wednesday appears to be something that the nations are willing to try to look beyond. Each country is hungry for an ally to counteract a growing China.

This summer, federal prosecutors in Manhattan stated that an unidentified Indian official, whose responsibilities include security and intelligence, and an Indian national called Nikhil Gupta, who is 52 years old, conspired to assassinate a New York City resident who pushed for an independent Sikh state in northern India.

Even though President Joe Biden was honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a state visit to the White House on June 22, they continued to do so, exchanging texts with an undercover DEA agent about the planned killing.

According to a senior administration official, once the United States government became aware of the scheme before the end of July, it urged that India conduct an investigation. “The potential repercussions for our bilateral relationship were similar threats to persist,” the person added, referring to the fact that Vice President Biden sent his top of the Central Intelligence Agency to New Delhi and brought up the subject with Prime Minister Modi during a summit in September.

In addition to continuing high-level discussions and commitments to work together more closely, Vice President Biden’s secretaries of state and defense traveled to Delhi earlier this month. When the details of the plot became known this week, the United States government issued a cautious response.

Even though the Biden administration is working toward “an ambitious agenda to expand our cooperation” with India, a senior official in the United States administration referred to the murder plan as a “serious matter” and stated that Washington anticipates India to put an end to actions of this nature.

According to specialists in foreign policy, the United States’ response demonstrates a determination to steer clear of allowing the problem to undermine the relationship as a whole.

“It would appear that the Biden administration is attempting to compartmentalize this issue from the rest of the strategic relationship,” said Lisa Curtis, who had previously served as a senior director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council of the White House.

The United States is attempting to isolate Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, and Vice President Biden has made it a priority to cultivate relationships with India in the hopes of countering China’s aspirations in Asia and moving India away from Russia.

THEY ARE RELYING ON ONE ANOTHER
Compared to a case that is highly similar to the one that occurred in Canada this year, the assassination plan in New York has so far taken a different path.

According to statements made by Canada in September, there were “credible” claims that linked Indian agents to the assassination of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which took place in a suburb of Vancouver in June.

The claim made by Canada was enthusiastically denied by India, which resulted in a diplomatic spat that resulted in the expulsion of diplomats from both countries and New Delhi threatened to sabotage trade negotiations.

Conversely, India issued a conciliatory reaction to the charge that the United States handed out on Wednesday. It stated that it was investigating the matter and taking it seriously.

Happymon Jacob, an Indian foreign policy specialist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, stated that India does not have a strategic partnership with Canada, in contrast to the United States, which it does have between the two countries. “Both the U.S. and India realize that they need each other, perhaps the U.S. a bit more than India.”

The overtures that the Biden administration made to Modi were already contentious. Some people said that the Indian leader’s tendency toward authoritarianism and Hindu nationalism made him an untrustworthy partner.

Activists hold Modi accountable for the religious riots that occurred in Gujarat, his home state, in 2002. These disturbances resulted in the deaths of over one thousand persons, the majority of whom were Muslims. In 2005, Modi was not granted a visa to enter the United States due to a statute issued by the United States that prohibits admission to foreign nationals who have committed “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

Even though Modi’s taking the summit in June was his first official visit to the United States, in the White House, where he sat next to Modi, Vice President Joe Biden praised the relationship as “built on mutual trust, candor, and respect.”

According to Richard Rossow, an expert on India who works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, based on the timeframe that was released for the alleged conspiracy, the administration of Vice President Joe Biden would have been aware of it well in advance of several major high-level meetings.

“So, based on its own merits, this issue is not enough to derail ties, even if it generates some underlying tension,” stated the president.

One of the senior fellows at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ashley Tellis, stated that even though the administration of Vice President Joe Biden “has bent backwards to avoid a public spat with Delhi,” the issues of sovereignty that are involved in an attack on a citizen of the United States who is present within the United States would be concerning to officials from the United States.

“I think the bilateral relationship will survive this fiasco,” stated the president. “But it will reinforce the qualms of many who believe that the claims about shared values between the U.S. and India are simply mythology.”