0:00

This is a perfect storm

0:02

of conspiracy theories. on December

0:05

15, 2017, 2017, Canadian

0:07

billionaires Honey and Barry Sherman were found

0:09

dead in their mansion. to this day,

0:11

The case remains unsolved.

0:14

Counterfeit and copied pharmaceuticals was much

0:16

more lucrative than heroin, cocaine, and

0:18

the rest of of it. it. If

0:20

you live by the sword, you die

0:22

by the sword. Listen to the no-good,

0:24

terribly kind, wonderful lives and tragic

0:26

deaths of of Barry and Honey Sherman,

0:29

wherever you get your podcasts. The

0:41

first sign of trouble was a

0:43

group of people, mostly young Hindu

0:45

men, chanting, wake up Hindus, and

0:47

Jai Sri Ram. It's

0:55

February 24, 2020,

0:58

almost a year into Modi's second term. Nisar

1:01

Ahmed, a garment shop owner and his

1:03

wife, watched from their window in Northeast

1:06

Delhi. As the crowd

1:08

draws closer, they set a motorcycle on

1:10

fire. Nisar

1:15

picks up his phone and calls a

1:17

helpline. I

1:21

only called up 100 helpline because I could

1:23

not go to the police. All the roads

1:26

were blocked. If I'd gone, I might not

1:28

have been in front of you today. He

1:31

tries to be inconspicuous as he ushers

1:34

his daughter and daughter-in-law out of the

1:36

flat to stay with a

1:38

relative in another neighbourhood. The

1:40

crowd eventually disperses, but several

1:42

men stay in the area,

1:44

harassing anyone who appears to

1:46

be Muslim. Night

1:49

falls, but Nisar stays up. He

1:51

sees people stumbling down the street. They

1:54

look like they've been beaten. The

1:58

next morning, the moths back. So

2:06

the crowds come to our house at around 8.30, 9 o'clock.

2:09

They attack the house right next to ours. Salman

2:12

had a shop there, so we tried

2:14

to dissuade them saying, brother, why are

2:16

you doing this? As

2:21

soon as we did that, all of the crowds

2:23

started bombarding our place. They

2:27

started attacking our home with stones,

2:29

bars, sticks. They broke

2:31

the shutter and after that, the stuff in our

2:33

house, our three motorcycles and our

2:36

warehouse, jeans, jackets,

2:38

they looted everything. The

2:45

rioters set fire to everything in reach.

2:47

Nisar, his wife, and his two sons

2:50

run up to the roof to escape

2:52

all of the smoke. They

2:54

jump to a neighboring rooftop. The

2:56

crowd pouts them with stones and

2:59

they leap from rooftop to rooftop until

3:01

finally a close friend, a Hindu,

3:03

takes them in and gives them

3:05

tea as they wait for

3:07

the violence to succeed. But

3:10

it doesn't. The

3:12

rioters find them a couple of hours later. Nisar

3:15

and his family flee the neighborhood

3:17

and they never return. No,

3:23

we didn't go home. We

3:27

couldn't because there were so many people

3:29

waiting outside. We couldn't pick any of

3:32

our belongings up. We were barefoot, no

3:34

slippers on. We left wearing

3:36

whatever we were when this happened. We

3:39

couldn't even find time to go home. Even

3:49

now, more than four years after the attack,

3:52

Nisar worries it could happen again.

4:00

Very different for us Muslims. In

4:02

our faces now have this weird

4:04

sadness all the time. And since

4:06

twenty fourteen twenty fifteen since this

4:08

happened, there's this fear in stone

4:10

in our minds and increasing fear

4:12

about what can happen next that

4:14

o'clock at all. This

4:17

is something I often hear from

4:19

Muslims in India that these cells

4:21

a sense as a nice ever

4:24

since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was

4:26

first elected, and that after his

4:28

commanding victory back in Twenty nineteen,

4:30

that sense of unease has only

4:32

grown. Early

4:37

and Modi second term, he

4:40

began projecting an unapologetically muscular

4:42

kind of power. Literally, he

4:44

brag about the size of

4:46

his chest sixty six inches.

4:49

It's fun to invade Congress organ

4:51

in got out with us. He

4:54

warns terrorists and enemies at home

4:56

and abroad that his government isn't

4:58

afraid to enter their homes and

5:00

to the. Uma.

5:05

And. Government risk of

5:07

modern. See,

5:16

will lessen when has emboldened most.

5:18

He's no longer holding back and

5:21

he launches into sin as his

5:23

most controversial move. Yes, so how

5:25

does Modi. Wheels the unprecedented

5:27

power he's been given. I'm

5:38

Selena Cities and this

5:40

is Moody's India. Understood

5:42

Episode. Three. The

5:44

Strong. Suit.

5:59

Is a fool. strongmen. These

6:02

leaders often use muscular

6:04

exclusionary rhetoric and strident

6:06

nationalism. They invoke a

6:08

more glorious but mythical past

6:11

and abandon the long-held liberal

6:13

ideal of equal rights for

6:15

all. Modi has been

6:17

called a strongman for some time and

6:20

just two months into his second

6:22

term he makes the first of

6:25

two significant strongman moves. Restriction

6:28

has had been imposed across the

6:30

Kashmir Valley. We are here in

6:32

the Srinagar where already during the

6:34

night internet services, mobile services, phone

6:36

services had been snippered across the

6:38

Kashmir Valley. In

6:41

early August thousands of Indian troops pour

6:43

into Kashmir. Internet and phone lines are

6:45

cut. Much of the state is put

6:48

under lockdown. We are

6:50

seeing huge deployment of security forces

6:54

and a law that guaranteed a

6:56

measure of independence to India's only

6:58

Muslim majority state is revoked.

7:07

But let me back up here. Jammu and

7:09

Kashmir is nestled in the Himalayas. It straddles

7:12

the border of India and Pakistan

7:14

and the two countries have fought

7:16

over it pretty much non-stop since

7:18

partition. And

7:20

believe me it's one of the most beautiful

7:22

places on earth. It's also one of

7:25

the most heavily militarized. Still

7:30

the Indian part of Kashmir has

7:32

always maintained some autonomy with its

7:34

own constitution and its own set

7:36

of laws. That's what article

7:38

370 allowed and that's

7:41

what Modi got rid of. Kashmiris

7:44

took to the streets by the thousands.

7:46

The government's response was severe.

8:00

shot out of unrifled battles.

8:02

This weapon has blinded people.

8:04

It's killed people. That's

8:07

Akir Patel, a writer and the

8:09

chair of Amnesty International here in India.

8:12

He's followed Narendra Modi's career for

8:14

years. So

8:17

what you have today is more or

8:19

less a province that is ruled under

8:21

the gun with a very large

8:23

concentration of army and

8:25

the para-military forces that

8:27

operate on a different

8:30

set of principles than they do in

8:32

the rest of India. Critics

8:36

have called the move unconstitutional, but

8:38

the Supreme Court of India has

8:40

upheld the decision. And

8:43

it's been widely celebrated by much

8:45

of the country's Hindu majority as

8:47

a righteous use of strength. The

8:51

second strongman move comes a few months later,

8:53

in December of 2019, in the form of

8:57

a piece of legislation called the

8:59

Citizenship Amendment Act, or the CAA.

9:10

The new law gives undocumented

9:13

migrants and residents from neighboring

9:15

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan a

9:18

path to Indian citizenship. If

9:21

they are Hindu, Christian, Buddhist,

9:23

Sikh, Parsi or Jain, but

9:25

not if they're Muslim. The

9:30

government says the CAA is

9:32

meant to help people fleeing

9:35

persecution from Muslim-majority countries. But

9:37

its critics fear the actual

9:39

intention is to single out

9:41

Muslims who don't have proper

9:43

documentation and that it could

9:46

even be used as a pretense to

9:48

detain and deport Muslims. The

9:56

response to the CAA was intense.

10:00

We are going to have a party. We are

10:02

going to have a party. We are going to

10:04

have a party. We

10:06

are going to have a party. Protests broke

10:09

out across the country, especially in the capital,

10:11

Delhi, where university

10:13

students from all religious backgrounds

10:15

pushed back. Parliament

10:17

has passed the law, but you youngsters are all coming out

10:19

and saying we don't want it. Yes, because

10:21

it goes against the very idea of what India

10:24

is supposed to be, which is a secular

10:26

country, which has always been a home

10:28

for people of different states and beliefs.

10:30

And this directly goes against that. The

10:34

crowds were huge. There were

10:36

hundreds of thousands of protesters, at

10:39

times shutting down entire city centres.

10:42

And this riled some members of

10:44

the BJP, who called

10:46

the protesters, traders and

10:48

anti-nationals. There

10:51

were some BJP hotheads who went to

10:53

the protests and threatened violence. In

10:55

the presence of the police, who couldn't do anything

10:57

or chose not to do anything, violence

11:00

followed. One

11:02

of the BJP hotheads Akur is

11:04

referring to was Anurag Thakur, the

11:06

Minister of State for Finance and

11:08

Corporate Affairs. He led a

11:10

chant at a rally. That

11:20

roughly translates to shoot the

11:22

traders of India. Another

11:27

was Kapil Mishra, a leader in the

11:29

Delhi BJP. On February 23,

11:33

2020, he issued a three-day ultimatum to

11:36

the police to clear the roads of

11:38

anti-CAA protests. Soon

11:52

after, he tweeted a call-out for followers

11:54

to gather in northeast Delhi. BJP

11:57

supporters arrived with saffron flags.

12:00

chanted slogans and were accused of

12:02

intimidating the Muslim residents of the

12:05

area. These rallies quickly

12:07

turned violent. Within hours,

12:09

Northeast Delhi was being torn

12:11

apart by anti-Muslim mosques, including

12:14

the mob I mentioned earlier, the one

12:16

that attacked Nisar and his family. BJP

12:23

supporters blocked off the main

12:25

roads surrounding the area, preventing

12:27

first responders from getting to

12:29

the injured. And one

12:31

viral video showed a group of Muslim

12:33

men lying on the ground. They

12:46

were being forced to sing the national

12:48

anthem by a group of police officers

12:52

after being beaten. One

12:54

of them eventually died from his injuries. While

13:02

the riots raged on, Modi hosted

13:05

a high-profile visitor and friend. He

13:08

wants people to have religious freedom and very strongly.

13:10

And he said that in India... U.S.

13:12

President Donald Trump, when

13:16

asked about the CAA bill and the

13:18

ongoing riots, Trump said... They

13:21

have worked very hard to have great and

13:24

open religious freedom. And if you look back

13:26

and look at what's going on, relative

13:28

to other places especially, but they have

13:31

really worked hard on religious freedom. The

13:39

violence in Delhi lasted three days and

13:41

ended with around 53 dead,

13:43

mostly Muslims. Thousands more

13:45

were displaced and had to stay in

13:48

relief camps on the city's outskirts. Then

13:53

the government cracked down on the

13:55

months-long protests. Anti-CAA protesters

13:58

were accused by the police. authorities

14:00

of inciting the Delhi raid and

14:03

they were locked up. The

14:06

crackdown included anyone connected to

14:09

the protest, including journalists and

14:11

student activists. That's

14:14

where it stands. There are civil society activists who

14:16

were not in the area at the time, who

14:18

may have been added to some WhatsApp group, who

14:20

spent four years, three years in jail because they

14:23

haven't received bail purely on the charge that

14:25

they may have been part in some way

14:27

of this violence, though there is no direct

14:30

evidence to show it. Some

14:33

of these activists were arrested and

14:35

charged under the controversial Unlawful

14:38

Activities Prevention Act, a

14:40

counter-terrorism law. Thousands have

14:42

been charged under the act since Modi

14:45

took office in 2014. So

14:48

the crackdown cooled the protests. But

14:51

what really brought them to an end in the spring of

14:53

2020 was the

14:55

nationwide COVID lockdown. India,

14:57

like so much of the world, came

14:59

to a relative standstill. But

15:04

north of Delhi, in the states

15:06

of Punjab and Haryana, a different

15:08

kind of unrest was stirring. For

15:23

the last 20 years, 25 years

15:26

actually, since neoliberalization

15:28

has hit the

15:30

Indian farming sector, Punjab

15:33

has been protesting for something or

15:35

the other. This

15:38

is Amandeep Sandhu, a journalist and the

15:40

author of Punjab, A Journey Through Fault

15:42

Lines. And he's been following

15:44

the issues facing Punjab for years. So

15:49

there is an ecosystem of protest

15:51

in Punjab, so to say, because

15:55

farmers have been repeatedly asking for

15:57

various things from respective

15:59

governments. and most often

16:01

they are even promised something, but it

16:03

is not fulfilled. Punjab

16:07

is the breadbasket of India because it

16:09

produces 70% of the country's grain. But

16:13

farmers there have been struggling economically

16:16

for some time now. There

16:18

have been compounding crises, a spiraling

16:20

debt, and a suicide epidemic.

16:23

And the stories I've heard there, they're

16:25

heartbreaking. So

16:29

when the Modi government passed three new

16:31

farming bills that threatened to, in

16:33

the farmer's eyes, hurt their

16:35

bottom lines and allow large

16:37

agribusiness corporations to gain further

16:39

ground in the market, the

16:42

farmers weren't happy. Most

16:45

of the economists, most of the agrarian

16:47

experts were saying, oh, very good laws,

16:49

very good laws. But the farmers knew

16:52

that this means contract

16:54

farming. This means we

16:56

will not own our land. We will become

16:58

labor on it. We'll become serfs. The

17:02

farmers' unions first started protesting in

17:04

Punjab and Haryana. What

17:07

they did is they closed all the

17:09

toll plazas, which is where the

17:11

government turned avenue, you know, so that it

17:13

hits the government. And

17:15

they closed down all the

17:17

patrol bunks and the shopping

17:20

malls of the richy rich. Then

17:26

they stepped up their protest, driving

17:28

their trucks and their big tractors

17:30

towards the capital for November 26,

17:33

2020. That's a holiday that marks

17:36

when the Indian Constitution was adopted.

17:41

On the way, the police

17:43

had erected barricades. They were using tear

17:46

gas. They were using water cannons. The

17:49

farmers kept breaking all of them. And

17:52

they advanced upon Delhi, but not

17:55

inside Delhi. They stood outside Delhi.

17:58

The protesters came from all backgrounds,

18:00

but many of the leaders were sick,

18:03

another religious minority in India. And

18:06

they had garnered pretty widespread support. About

18:09

250 million people across the

18:11

Indian subcontinent took part in a

18:13

24-hour general strike

18:16

in solidarity with the farmers.

18:18

It was one of the largest

18:20

mass protests in recorded history. Modi

18:30

tried to suggest that most farmers

18:32

actually supported the bills and

18:34

saw the benefit that they would bring to the

18:36

sector. When

18:42

that didn't work, his party took

18:45

a different approach, painting political opposition

18:47

as enemies of the state.

18:50

Another strong man moved. Politicians

19:04

started linking the farmers to kalistanis,

19:07

an outlawed Sikh separatist movement with

19:09

a violent and adversarial past with

19:11

the Indian government. And

19:14

we could make a whole other

19:16

podcast about the fraught and painful

19:18

history involving the Sikh community and

19:20

the kalistan movement. But what

19:22

you need to know for this podcast is

19:24

that the movement for a separate Sikh state

19:26

called kalistan has been around for the better

19:28

part of a century, since

19:30

even before India's independence. And

19:35

it peaked in the 1980s with

19:37

a series of bloody events. It

19:39

was in 1984 that

19:41

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent troops

19:43

into the Golden Temple. That's the

19:45

holiest site in the Sikh religion.

19:50

They had orders to flush out a leader

19:52

of the kalistan movement. The

19:56

operation was a massacre. The

19:58

government says around 60. hundred were

20:00

killed, but other independent estimates suggest

20:02

it was way more than that.

20:10

Months later, Indira Gandhi sicced

20:12

her, and that

20:14

sparked a backlash. Thousands of

20:16

sics are killed in pogroms across

20:19

the country. And

20:22

since then, since 1984, the Sikhs

20:25

have not been able to connect with India at

20:27

that level, in which you feel, OK, this

20:29

is our country, we are very happy to be here.

20:33

Then, in 1985, a bomb was

20:35

planted on an Air India flight

20:37

leaving from Montreal. At

20:40

daybreak today, the bodies of more than half the people

20:42

on board the jet were still missing in the seas

20:44

up the coast of Kerry. Every available

20:46

helicopter was scrambled to help in the

20:48

search for the

20:51

bodies. All 329 people on board

20:53

were killed in the deadliest

20:55

terrorist attack in Canadian history.

20:59

One of the men involved, a

21:01

Kalistani extremist, was convicted of manslaughter.

21:05

The suspects seek extremists hoping for an

21:07

independent homeland in India. Only

21:10

Indira Jitsing Rayat ever served time for

21:12

the crime. After

21:21

years of insurgency in Punjab and crackdowns

21:23

by the central government, the

21:25

Kalistani movement and any discussion of

21:27

it in India largely petered out

21:30

until the

21:32

recent farmer protests. Because

21:35

now, the Kalistan movement is once

21:37

again the focal point of

21:39

government suspicions. When

21:44

the new farm laws were challenged in court, India's

21:47

attorney general argued that the

21:49

farmer's protests had been infiltrated

21:51

by Kalistani elements. Supporters

21:56

of the legislation claimed in a

21:58

hearing that Sikhs furthered the which

22:00

is an organization based in the US that's

22:02

banned here in India, with paying

22:05

farmers to take part in

22:07

the protest. Here

22:11

Modi government found it just

22:13

very convenient because their whole

22:16

agenda is nationalism,

22:18

Uber nationalism, Hindutva

22:21

nationalism. We are the

22:23

insiders. Everybody is an outsider. So they

22:25

got a good chance to put the

22:27

outsider tag on the seats by

22:30

calling them Kalasanis. Ultimately

22:33

the Supreme Court sided with the

22:35

farmers and hit pause on

22:37

those laws, sending both parties back

22:40

to the negotiating table. Then

22:42

months later Modi surprises

22:44

everyone and announces that he

22:46

will repeal the farm bills at

22:48

the centre of the protests. This

22:51

was a massive win for the

22:53

farmers movement. Mr.

22:57

Modi has never taken back anything in

22:59

his life. As a

23:01

CM of Gujarat and as a Prime

23:03

Minister. So this was a

23:05

big, big shift there. For

23:10

the first time since he took office there

23:12

was a sense that Modi's power

23:14

could be challenged and that

23:17

perhaps with enough pressure Modi

23:19

can even back down. But

23:23

soon the Kalasan issue would come

23:25

back to the fore and Modi

23:27

would be embroiled in an international scandal

23:29

that would make him look anything but

23:32

weak. In

23:47

the 1980s and 90s New York City needed

23:49

a tough cop like Detective

23:51

Louis Garcelle. That's

24:01

one version. This guy is

24:03

a piece of s***. In

24:31

June 2023, a 45-year-old plumber is

24:33

driving out of his gurdwara's parking

24:35

lot in a Vancouver suburb when

24:37

a white sedan blocks his path.

24:40

Two men in masks run at his

24:42

pickup truck and shoot him 34 times

24:45

in broad daylight. Canada-based

24:50

prominent Sikh 4 justice leader

24:53

and Kalaasali activist Harib Singh

24:55

Nidjar has been shot dead

24:57

in Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara.

25:01

Hundreds of community members and supporters

25:03

of the Kalaasan movement came together

25:06

all to commemorate the life of

25:08

Harib Singh Nidjar. Harib

25:13

Singh Nidjar was a leader in the

25:15

Kalaasan movement. He moved to

25:17

Canada from Punjab in the mid-90s and then

25:19

became a citizen in 2007. He

25:23

was an active member of Sikhs 4 justice,

25:26

the group accused of funding the farmers'

25:28

protests. While

25:31

the movement isn't as active here in

25:33

India, it has remained alive within the

25:35

Sikh diaspora. In

25:38

the 80s and 90s,

25:41

a lot of Sikhs fled Punjab. These

25:45

Sikhs have now lived abroad

25:47

for 30-40 years. They

25:51

have children there who have grown up in

25:53

these families. They

25:55

carry an idea of India as

25:57

a brutal state. which

26:00

they have given to their children, which is what

26:03

is intergenerational trauma. And

26:06

the children see so many other movements

26:09

around the world, like for example,

26:11

the Black Lives Matter, you know.

26:14

Right now the Philistine, you know,

26:16

the whole Philistine

26:18

conflict, you know. And

26:20

they say that, okay, we'll side with the Sikhs. We

26:23

are Sikhs. We'll reclaim our identity.

26:28

This Sikh separatist activism abroad has been a

26:30

thorn in the side of the Indian government

26:32

for years. Modi

26:36

has criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

26:38

for being too soft on those

26:40

Modi-deeams extremists. And Trudeau has pushed

26:42

back, citing Canada's freedom of expression.

26:45

Which brings me back to Harthap Singh

26:48

Nijer, the man murdered in that Canadian parking lot. The

26:51

Indian government accused him of being

26:53

a terrorist, of running

26:57

militant training camps, and of being involved

26:59

in an attack on a Hindu priest. Nijer insisted he was innocent. He

27:02

even wrote an open letter to Trudeau in 2016, calling

27:06

the allegations against him factually baseless

27:08

and fabricated. After

27:16

his death, Nijer's son told the CBC that RCMP

27:18

officers came to the city that RCMP officers came

27:20

to the family home in July 2022 to warn

27:22

his father that

27:26

there was an imminent threat against his

27:28

life, and that he should be very careful.

27:30

But the police would not say who the

27:33

threat came from. And in

27:35

the weeks before his death, Nijer

27:37

reportedly told friends that SISES,

27:39

Canada's intelligence agency, had informed

27:41

him that he was a

27:44

target for assassination. And

27:49

so when Nijer was shot, some people

27:51

in the Sikh community started speculating that

27:54

the Indian government was behind the hit.

28:00

Canadian government initially didn't

28:02

comment. But less than

28:04

two weeks after the killing, India's

28:06

Foreign Minister, Subramanyam Jay Shankar,

28:08

had a warning for Canada

28:11

about how they handle sick

28:13

separatist activism within their borders.

28:17

How Canada has dealt

28:19

with the Kalistani issue

28:22

has been a long-standing concern because

28:24

very frankly, they seem to be

28:26

driven by World Bank politics. We

28:29

made it very clear, and I've

28:31

done so sometimes even in public,

28:33

which is that if there are

28:36

activities which are permitted from Canada,

28:38

which impinge on our sovereignty,

28:41

territorial integrity, on our security,

28:43

then we will have to respond.

28:49

Relations between the two countries

28:51

quickly deteriorate. At

28:53

the G20 summit hosted by New Delhi in

28:55

September 2023, you

28:58

could see that tension. Modi

29:00

pulls Trudeau aside for a stern

29:02

word about Kalistani activism in Canada,

29:04

and that was their only exchange

29:07

there. Things were clearly

29:09

frostier than ever between the two

29:11

leaders. And

29:19

then, less than a week after

29:22

leaving India, Trudeau drops this bombshell.

29:25

Over the past number of weeks, Canadian

29:28

security agencies have been actively

29:30

pursuing credible allegations of

29:32

a potential link between

29:34

agents of the government of India and

29:37

the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep

29:40

Singh Nijar. It

29:45

was a shocking allegation that

29:47

a foreign government would assassinate

29:49

a Canadian citizen on Canadian

29:51

soil. India denied the

29:53

claim, calling it absurd and motivated.

29:56

And the foreign minister said that,

30:00

government of India's policy. The

30:03

reaction from Indian media was

30:05

downright contemptuous. Why

30:08

did Justin Trudeau make a spectacle out

30:10

of this? Justin Trudeau needs

30:12

the support of a Khalistani leader to

30:14

stay in power. So is it really

30:16

surprising that he shields Khalistani? Now,

30:20

Canada's intelligence is believed to be feeding

30:22

Justin Trudeau wrong information. That is what

30:24

intelligence agencies here in India believe. They

30:27

also claim that agents that were hired

30:29

by CSIS are reportedly from Khalistani groups

30:31

and they are the ones that are

30:33

peddling these lies and feeding this misinformation

30:36

to the Prime Minister and his administration

30:38

there. India is

30:40

far more sure-footed in international relations

30:42

now than it has perhaps ever

30:44

been before. Trudeau may learn

30:47

it the hard way but so will

30:49

anyone too lazy to take the time

30:52

and make their peace with a

30:54

new India. India

30:59

suspends visa services for Canadians and

31:01

advises Indian citizens to not travel

31:04

to parts of Canada because of

31:06

what they called an increase in

31:09

anti-Indian activities. Modi

31:11

is able to avoid commenting on

31:13

the matter, letting his associates deny

31:16

the allegations on his behalf. Until

31:22

the United States drops its

31:24

own bombshell. The

31:27

15-page indictment reads like a movie

31:29

script. An unnamed Indian government official

31:31

contacts an alleged Indian drug trafficker

31:34

to orchestrate the assassination of a

31:36

sick separatist in New York City.

31:38

That man, in turn, attempts to

31:41

hire a criminal indictment over

31:43

a botched assassination attempt, the

31:45

target, a New York-based lawyer

31:47

and sick activist, Gurbatwant Singh

31:49

Pannu. It

31:51

alleges that an unnamed Indian government

31:54

official directed an Indian national named

31:56

Nikhil Gupta to arrange the hit.

32:00

tried to hire someone that he thought was

32:02

a hit man. $100,000

32:06

but that hit man turned out to be

32:08

an undercover DEA. So the indictment goes on

32:10

to say that Gupta arranged photos and surveillance

32:13

video of the victim's home and in June

32:15

urged the source to quote, finish him, finish

32:17

him brother, don't take too much time, push

32:19

these guys. The

32:25

indictment also claims that in the

32:28

hours after Niger's murder in Canada,

32:30

this unnamed Indian official sent Gupta

32:33

a video clip showing Niger's bloody

32:35

body slumped in his trunk. And

32:38

it alleges that a day later,

32:40

Gupta told the undercover agent that

32:42

Niger quote, was also a target

32:45

and quote, we have so many

32:47

targets. The

32:52

international pressure was mounting, as was

32:54

the risk of damaging US India

32:57

relations. Modi couldn't stay silent

32:59

any longer saying quote, if a citizen

33:01

of ours has done anything good or

33:03

bad, we are ready to look into

33:05

it. Our commitment is to the rule

33:08

of law. So

33:10

he's talking about the US case,

33:12

but that indirectly helped thaw Indo-Canadian

33:14

relations a little. I

33:17

think there is the beginning of an understanding

33:19

that they can't bluster their way through this.

33:22

And there is an openness

33:25

to collaborating in a way that

33:27

perhaps they were less open before.

33:34

This story is far from over.

33:39

Following many months of investigative work

33:41

by the integrated homicide investigation team

33:44

just weeks ago in early May,

33:46

police in Canada came out with

33:48

a big announcement. Three

33:52

suspects have been arrested and charged

33:54

for their alleged involvement in the

33:56

killing of Mr. Niger. All

34:02

three of the accused are

34:04

Indian citizens living in Canada

34:06

and alleged gang members. There

34:10

are separate and distinct investigations ongoing

34:12

into these matters. Certainly

34:15

not limited to the involvement of the

34:17

people arrested today. And

34:19

these efforts include investigating connections to

34:21

the Government of India. When

34:28

India's Foreign Minister was asked about

34:30

the arrests, he talked about the

34:32

suspect's criminal background. What do you say

34:34

in the morning? Okay, I mean,

34:37

somebody may have been arrested, the police may have

34:39

done some investigation. But the

34:41

fact is, number of gangland

34:43

people, number of people with organized

34:46

crime links from Punjab have been

34:48

made welcome in Canada. We

34:51

have been telling Canada, saying, look,

34:53

these are wanted criminals from India.

34:55

You have given them visas, you

34:57

have led, they have come many of them

34:59

in false documentation. He went

35:01

on to say that this was

35:03

essentially Canada's problem, not India's. No,

35:07

why would we fear? I mean, if

35:09

something happened there, it is for

35:11

them to worry about. We

35:17

asked for an interview with someone from

35:19

India's High Commission in Canada and

35:21

the Consul General, but we didn't hear back. For

35:26

now, the RCMP continues to

35:28

investigate, and the Indian government

35:30

continues to stand by its

35:33

denials. But for some

35:35

of Modi's supporters, the possibility

35:37

that he might have had something to do with

35:39

it, it isn't actually a

35:41

knock against him. For

35:45

his core constituency, it would be wonderful. He

35:49

would be the man. He's

35:51

saving India, you see. It

35:55

goes very well for him. And

36:00

I heard a similar sentiment when I was reporting

36:02

on this story myself. A lot of

36:04

people would tell me he didn't do it, but

36:07

then add, well if he did, that would

36:09

be a good thing, because it would mean

36:11

the Prime Minister is cracking down on those

36:13

he considers threats to this country. Ultimately,

36:18

in the eyes of many Indians, Modi

36:21

has kept the country safe from

36:23

its enemies, at home and abroad.

36:26

And the BJP often brags about

36:28

the lack of any major terrorist

36:30

attacks in India since Modi took

36:33

office. They say he's made

36:35

the country safer. He's

36:39

barrelled ahead with more controversial

36:41

legislation, recently implementing the

36:43

Citizenship Amendment Bill, and weathered

36:46

further farmers' protests, all

36:48

while campaigning for a rare third term.

36:53

In the face of serious allegations of extrajudicial

36:55

killings, he's asserted India's authority on the world

36:58

stage. And through it

37:00

all, he's rewriting the story of India

37:02

into a country that's boldly Hindu, unafraid

37:06

of controversy,

37:08

and where some believe democracy is under threat.

37:14

That's on the next episode of Modi's India Understood.

37:22

An Indian developed under him. Up to

37:25

2047, he'll be there. 2047.

37:27

That's a long time for a Prime Minister. This

37:32

is not what Bapu had dreamt

37:35

to be the India of his dreams.

37:38

A populist is a gifted storyteller,

37:41

someone who can tell a false story well. The

37:44

only way he can be fought

37:46

is by telling a true story better. You've

37:54

been listening to Modi's India Understood

37:56

from CBC Podcasts and CBC News.

38:00

on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get

38:02

your podcasts. The show

38:04

was written by producer Joytas Sengupta

38:07

and showrunner Imogen Burtard, with me,

38:09

Salima Shivji. Sound designed by

38:11

Julia Whitman, with help from Dave Modi.

38:13

Interview with Nisar Ahmed by Ayushi Shung.

38:16

Story editing by Damon Fairless. Emily

38:18

Kanell is our digital coordinating producer.

38:21

Executive producers are Cecil Fernandez, Chris

38:23

Och, and Nick McCabe-Loko. In

38:28

order of appearance, audio from Nisar

38:31

Ahmed, One India, India Today, The

38:33

Quint, NDTV, Moto

38:35

Story, Arjun Sethi, Associated

38:37

Press, Narendra Modi, ITN, The

38:40

Economic Times, First Post, News

38:42

18, ANI News, and the

38:44

X Account of Subramaniam Jaitian.

38:47

And thanks to Nahid Mustafa at

38:49

CBC Ideas for her definition of

38:51

a strong.