India's secret assassination plot on U.S. soil
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Summary
India is rising as a competitive global power. It is also joining a club of nations that aggressively target dissidents on foreign soil. Today on “Post Reports,” we dive into India’s assassination plots.
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It was a split-screen moment: As the Biden administration hosted a White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022, an officer in India’s intelligence service was relaying instructions to a team hired to kill one of Modi’s most vocal critics in the United States. The assassination plot was part of several repressive acts targeting Indian diaspora populations in Asia, Europe and North America, according to officials in the United States and in India.
Greg Miller, a Washington Post investigative foreign correspondent, breaks down how a team of Post reporters have probed a global surge in aggression against dissident groups.
Amid shifting geopolitical forces, Miller explains how the United States and other Western governments have struggled to stem this repressive tide. India, for example, has faced few consequences for its use of violence against dissident groups, in part because the United States and its allies want closer ties with India in a new era of competition with China.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was mixed by Ted Muldoon and edited by Monica Campbell. Thanks to Peter Finn and Ellen Nakashima.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It was almost a year ago now. |
| 0:17.5 | It was almost a year ago now that Indian Prime Minister Norendra Modi came to Washington, came to the White House. |
| 0:21.3 | Welcome, Mr. Prime Minister. For an elaborately staged state dinner that was |
| 0:27.0 | part of a multi-year effort by the Biden administration to court him. I've long believed that the relationship between the United States and India is one of |
| 0:39.0 | that will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century. |
| 0:44.1 | This is an enormous priority for the United States. |
| 0:48.0 | Greg Miller is an investigative foreign correspondent for the post. |
| 0:51.7 | And at this state dinner, they pulled out all the stops. |
| 0:54.4 | They flew in a chef from California to preside over a vegetarian menu for the vegetarian |
| 1:01.2 | Indian Prime Minister. |
| 1:02.9 | There were lotus flowers on all of the tables |
| 1:06.6 | on the South Lawn at the White House, |
| 1:08.8 | which symbolize Modi's party in India. And there was a star-studded list of guests, including celebrities and many of Washington's most important players. |
| 1:22.0 | And almost at the same time that this is happening in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:26.0 | An officer in India's intelligence service is issuing kind of final instructions |
| 1:32.0 | for an assassination plot against one of Modi's most vocal |
| 1:35.9 | critics in the United States. |
| 1:38.9 | Did it affect my life? |
| 1:41.6 | Yes. That's Gurb T'i T'Anun, the target of this assassination attempt. |
| 1:49.0 | Pannun is a Sikh activist and a lawyer. He's also a U.S US citizen who moved here from India for college in the 90s. |
| 1:56.0 | We reached him in New York State and asked him about how things have changed for him since this attempt on his life last year. |
| 2:05.6 | I'm very careful in planning my day, where I go, how I go, and what public meetings and what public gatherings I attend. |
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