Australian MP seeks assurance from Australian Government about the safety of Sikhs
Australian MP seeks assurance from Australian Government about the safety of Sikhs
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00:00 The Sikh community is reeling because their leaders are being targeted for political assassinations.
00:06 Just a few short days ago, the US Justice Department announced that an Indian government
00:10 official had directed the attempted assassination of a Sikh community leader on US soil.
00:16 This follows the murder of Sikh leader Hardep Singh Nijar in British Columbia, again directed
00:20 by an Indian government official.
00:22 These actions show how far to the extreme the BJP government in India has lurched.
00:28 If the BJP administration is actively plotting to kill political opponents in the US and
00:32 Canada, just imagine what's happening in India itself.
00:36 All Australian politicians should now show solidarity with our Sikh community, who are
00:40 the most visible targets of this extreme political violence.
00:44 I know there's apprehension in the Sikh community about their safety here, and I can see why
00:48 they're concerned.
00:50 We have raised this directly with security agencies, including ASIO.
00:53 ASIO has informed me that there is no current identifiable threat to the Sikh community
00:58 here.
00:59 The Sikh community is very visible in public places, and especially when they're involved
01:02 in politics.
01:03 They deserve a clear and direct assurance from the Australian government that proactive
01:07 measures are being taken to ensure their safety.
01:10 There must be a public statement from our government to the government of India that
01:13 these actions represent a gross breach of international law that offends Australian
01:17 values.
01:19 Our government needs to make it clear that if something like this occurs in Australia,
01:22 that it will be taken as a hostile act, which will fundamentally undermine our bilateral
01:27 relationship.
01:28 It is essential, this is said now, to prevent this violence occurring in Australia.
01:33 It's one thing to ride in a golden chariot and venerate a foreign political leader as
01:37 the boss, but the hard politics is when you need to put principles and the collective
01:42 good of Australians ahead of a media sugar hit or the promise of a lucrative trade deal.
01:48 That's when politicians earn their keep.
01:52 Thank you, Mr. Chair, and that's a good segue into my line of questioning.
01:57 It's one thing to deal with this behavior when it comes from a nation that we would
02:01 sort of put into the adversary camp, China, Iran, others.
02:08 But you, Mr. Abramowitz, mentioned in particular nations like India, with which we have a strong
02:14 relationship, or Saudi Arabia, one a democracy, one a monarchy.
02:19 And I want to just focus on how do we deal with this when it is a nation that we're in
02:23 partnership with.
02:25 And I want to use India as an example.
02:27 I'd like to introduce into the record an article from the Wall Street Journal, December 2,
02:32 "Foiled Plot to Kill U.S. Sikh as Linked to Murder of a Canadian Activist."
02:36 Without objection, be clear and erratic.
02:37 And I want to read the first two paragraphs of the letter.
02:39 I think members of the panel understand this, but I just want to make sure the public does.
02:44 Hours after a Sikh community leader was assassinated by two masked men in the parking lot of his
02:49 temple in Canada, a senior Indian security officer sent a drug trafficker he knew a video
02:55 of the blood-covered victim slumped over in his truck.
02:58 An hour later, he followed that up with the New York address of another Sikh activist
03:03 he wanted killed.
03:05 The trafficker got right on it, according to U.S. prosecutors.
03:09 He passed on the video and other messages to a purported hitman who had already accepted
03:14 a $15,000 advance payment for the contract killing on U.S. soil and suggested there could
03:22 be more such work.
03:23 "We have so many targets," he told the hired gun, who he didn't know was really an undercover
03:31 U.S. law enforcement officer.
03:34 That's the case that has been recently brought in federal court in New York connecting to
03:40 the murder of the Sikh activist in the suburb of Toronto.
03:45 And it is highly, highly disturbing, to say the least.
03:52 And that quote, "We have so many targets," is something we need to pay very serious attention
03:57 to.
03:59 It's interesting to note that the Indian government's reaction to the prosecution of the United
04:03 States has been somewhat different than to the claim that their intelligence officials,
04:09 at least one official, was implicated in the murder in Toronto.
04:13 When the Canadian government, Prime Minister Trudeau, raised the issue and laid out the
04:18 evidentiary case, the Indian government responded in a very negative way and asked Ottawa to
04:24 recall about 40 Canadian diplomats that were in India.
04:28 When the news of this prosecution in the United States came out, the Indian government at
04:33 least suggested they were somewhat concerned and potentially chastened by this story, and
04:39 their comments have been a little bit more reasonable.
04:42 But we often say we're the oldest democracy in the world and India is the largest democracy
04:46 in the world.
04:47 This is not the behavior of a respectable democracy.
04:53 And I would like you to just use this as an โ use the Indian example when we're dealing
04:57 with a nation that we have such strong connections to.
05:00 We have military connections, economic connections, connections of family.
05:05 Our Indian American โ Indian American diaspora community in the United States is such an
05:08 important part of who we are as a country.
05:13 What are the strategies you suggest that we use in dealing with nations that we traditionally
05:19 count as friends?
05:21 Microphone.
05:22 Sorry, can you โ better?
05:29 Sorry about that.
05:32 What I can say on this, I honestly don't know more about these cases than is in the
05:38 public record so far.
05:39 This is all coming to light.
05:41 It strikes me that one thing that's very important is to get more information about
05:46 India's activities in democracies out there in the open.
05:51 That strikes me as something that this body could obtain from sources within the U.S.
05:58 Government, I think, and to publicize as much as you can, so get me transparent about what's
06:04 going on.
06:05 I would say the only other thing that I would add is that if you look at Freedom in the
06:10 World, which is our canonical annual survey of political rights and civil liberties in
06:18 the world, you see two broad trends.
06:23 One is authoritarian countries kind of getting stronger, but you also see backsliding among
06:28 established democracies.
06:30 And clearly, India is one of the cases that have been โ where there's been this kind
06:35 of backsliding.
06:36 So the kind of overseas activities that you are alluding to is also part of a backsliding,
06:43 a democratic backsliding.
06:45 Thank you.
06:46 I'll make the last comment.
06:47 I want to thank Ms. Gallagher for being here representing my profession, the legal profession.
06:52 The targeting of lawyers who represent political dissidents, human rights activists, is a long-time
06:59 strategy.
07:00 There's a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, the NAACP v. Button, that came
07:06 out of Virginia, when Virginia tried to pass both criminal statutes and ethical rules to
07:11 stop lawyers from taking on school desegregation cases.
07:15 And when dictators want to go after political dissidents, they usually start with the lawyers,
07:21 but it never ends there.
07:22 Thank you for your work.
07:23 I yield back, Mr. Chair.