Express View on US indictment of Vikash Yadav: Some intelligence questions

Many successful India spot the ostentatious American proceedings with predominant media leaks and outrage successful Washington arsenic fertile hypocrisy from a state with an expansive grounds of execution and unit successful different countries. Worse still, Washington refuses to recognise the broader discourse — the permissive cognition towards Khalistani extremism and separatism successful Canada and the US implicit the past galore decades. Although the Canadian grounds is much egregious, the US attack has not been different.

Sooner than later, Yadav is apt to beryllium convicted, but Delhi is improbable to manus him implicit to Washington. India has much than 60 extradition requests pending with the US, including those for David Headley, progressive successful organising the 2008 Mumbai panic attacks. It is simply a pity that Washington’s narrow, legalistic and self-righteous attack to the Pannun lawsuit is undermining fashionable goodwill successful India for the US narration that has been generated done sustained governmental and diplomatic efforts implicit the past 4th of a century.

Optimists would accidental India-US relations person seen worse and that this excessively shall pass. But pessimists are close to interest astir its interaction connected bilateral relations.

The situation for Delhi, though, lies astatine home. There indispensable beryllium superior reflection connected the broader governmental and reputational costs from the Pannun episode. There is overmuch greater planetary scrutiny now, adjacent successful affable countries, connected the activities of Indian diplomatic missions, particularly their engagement with the increasing diasporic communities.

If the Yadav communicative is simply a rogue affair, determination is an urgent request for Delhi to nail down its sources and forestall akin acts successful the future. Rather than get into a antiaircraft crouch amidst the dribs and drabs of accusation that volition travel retired of the Yadav proceedings successful the US, Delhi needs to instrumentality the governmental people and the broader nationalist into assurance connected the episode. That is the champion Indian defence against the increasing US and Canadian pressures connected the Nijjar and Pannun cases.

Delhi besides needs to name a high-level adept committee that volition measure the Yadav affair, outline factual authorities protocols for political, argumentation and organisational oversight of the Indian quality agencies. This is simply a bully infinitesimal for a bipartisan parliamentary effort to make a wide ineligible mandate for the quality agencies and laic down norms and procedures for their accountability.

For each their “anti-imperialist” rhetoric, Indian governmental parties person been rather comfy successful persisting with the inherited assemblage model that guides these agencies. Time for the governmental people to aftermath up and democratise the quality apparatus.