A few incidents cannot derail India-US ties: PM on Pannun case

The US federal prosecutors have charged that one Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. India has already constituted a probe committee to investigate allegations

I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries - PM Modi

New Delhi: India’s commitment is to the rule of law and if someone gives information, it would look into it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Financial Times in his first comments on the US allegations relating to an Indian link over a foiled plot targeting a Sikh separatist.

In an interview to the British daily, Modi said there is strong bipartisan support for strengthening of India-US relations and it is not appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic ties.

“If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” Modi said, according to FT. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law,” he said.

The US federal prosecutors have charged that one Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. India has already constituted a probe committee to investigate allegations. In the interview, Modi said India was “deeply concerned about the activities of certain extremist groups based overseas”. “These elements, under the guise of freedom of expression, have engaged in intimidation and incited violence.”

At the same time, Modi said: “There is strong bipartisan support for the strengthening of this relationship, which is a clear indicator of a mature and stable partnership. Security and counter-terrorism co-operation have been a key component of our partnership,” Modi said. “I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he said. India-US ties have been on an upswing in an array of areas, including defence, trade, investment, critical technology, energy and climate change. “We need to accept the fact that we are living in the era of multilateralism,” Modi said.

“The world is interconnected as well as interdependent. This reality compels us to recognise that absolute agreement on all matters cannot be a prerequisite for collaboration,” he said. Both sides are now working on an ambitious roadmap for Indo-US collaboration in seven specific high-technology areas, including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence and defence under the ‘Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET)’.

Modi visited Washington in June that brought a new momentum in ties between the two sides. US President Joe Biden visited India in September for the G20 summit during which he had extensive talks with Modi to further expand the bilateral ties.