SOUR NOTES IN THE LOVEFEST WITH AMERICA

Washington is telling Delhi indirectly that it cannot simply let slide an attempt to murder someone on its soil. India should heed the message and think creatively

-  K P NAYAR

AN assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi's India,' an exhaustive report claimed to be 'exclusive' by The Washington Post and published on April 29, is noteworthy for more reasons than merely its contents.

This has been completely lost sight of in India in the government's response to the report, in the praise of the story by opponents of the BJP-led government and in opinionated criticism of the newspaper, which is a reliable window on Washington's affairs.

Pronouncedly, a day after the publication of the article, the Post's Editorial Board thus described in its frontpage opinion, about the attempted assassination of United States citizen and Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil: "A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last." Opinions on their front pages by well-regarded US newspapers are not written every day. The Post's Editorial Board has expressed itself on India in its almost sesquicentennial history on rare occasions. The Pokhran II nuclear tests in 1998 was one such. The April 30 front-page opinion on the assassination plot against Pannun is also noteworthy for reasons which go beyond the views that the editorial conveyed.

Noteworthy is the key word. Not praiseworthy. The Post's revelations and opinions must be set against the three deferrals of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan's visit to India in the last five months. The Joe Biden administration is clearly putting the brakes on high level visits to India by its top officials.