The Canadian government’s recent allegations of Indian government involvement in the assassinations of Canadian Sikhs have the sordid quality of a Hollywood B-movie. The Canadian Royal Mounted Police allege that corrupt Indian diplomats worked with imprisoned Indian mob boss Lawrence Bishnoi to carry out overseas assassinations on two Indian Sikhs living in Canada, cooperating with other criminals on a campaign of widespread “extortion, intimidation, coercion and harassment.”
As disturbing as these charges are, the allegations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Indian government’s transnational repression, in particular against Indian Americans. The Indian government also allegedly put out a hit on an American Sikh living New York, has revoked overseas citizenship statuses of vocal critics, and detained and intimidated the India-based relatives of Indians living in the states.
Against these mounting threats, California representative Adam Schiff has initiated a vital campaign to protect Americans from transnational repression. His bipartisan Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 — co-sponsored by Representatives Daniel S. Goldman (D-NY), David Valadao (R-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Barbara Lee (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) — would institute an annual public-facing reporting process that would help raise the profile of Americans targeted by foreign governments. The U.S. congress should lend its full support to the bill, thereby taking a crucial first step towards addressing this growing problem.
India’s Transnational Threat
India’s various threats against nationals residing in the United States represent an extension of the authoritarian practices that activists and journalists in India must contend with. In pursuit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist vision for India — a political project that deploys violence in order to transform India into a pure Hindu nation, in which other religious minorities are subordinate — the Indian government has widely censored independent media, harassed journalists and media companies, and threatened the families of regime critics.
This effort to suppress dissent now extends overseas, even affecting my U.S. based organization, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). Last year, the Washington Post uncovered an Indian intelligence-associated disinformation campaign directed at U.S. officials and human rights groups that had spoken out against the Modi regime. IAMC, along with our ally Hindus for Human Rights, was a primary target in this Indian intelligence-led campaign.
Both of our organizations’ social media accounts have also been geo-blocked in India. In spite of his claim of being a “free speech absolutist,” Elon Musk’s X has routinely caved to Indian government requests to block accounts. Last year, X informed IAMC that our accounts had been taken down in India in response to an Indian government request made under their expansive censorship law, the Information Technology Act. The act has been extensively criticized for its overbroad provisions, with a number of Indian jurists attempting to challenge its constitutionality.
IAMC has also been accused of terrorism, simply for posting on X. After IAMC used social media to call on President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to condemn anti-Muslim violence in the Indian state of Tripura, the Indian press reported that the Indian government had charged us under the draconian anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Our posts about the violence “have potential to flare up communal tension in Tripura State between different religious communities, which may result into communal riots,” according to the Indian police statement. Considering how the UAPA has been used to criminalize peaceful dissenters in India, I hold serious reservations about returning to my home country.
The effects of the Indian government’s targeted attacks have had a profound chilling effect on my organization and the Indian American diaspora more broadly. Many of my friends and relatives no longer feel safe to express their thoughts online or in the company of other Indian nationals who may have ties to the Modi-led Indian government. Even a U.S. Congress Member — vocal critic of the Modi regime Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)— expressed fear of speaking out against the Indian government. “I’m always thinking about the impact on my family — for example, if there was some attempt to not allow me back into India,” she said.
The Transnational Repression Reporting Act
Against these real and mounting concerns, California representative Adam Schiff’s Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 has the potential to vastly help Indian Americans.
By instituting an annual, attorney general-led reporting process for cases of transnational repression, one which would require American law-enforcement and legislative agencies to record and investigate each attack in a public-facing process, the Act would raise the profile of attacks on American lives and freedoms.
Other American citizens who face intimidation and harassment from foreign governments — including Chinese, Iranian, and Saudi Americans — also stand to benefit. The bill itself mentions a number of profoundly troubling cases of overseas attacks on these groups otherwise little known by American legislators and the American public.
Last year in San Francisco, Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated groups beat Chinese American protestors for criticizing Xi-Jinping. At an otherwise peaceful protest coinciding with the Chinese president’s visit to the United States, numerous Chinese Americans had to contend with chemical spray attacks from CCP-sponsored mobs.
A year before that, in Brooklyn, Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad nearly escaped death after an Iranian-government-hired assassin showed up on her doorstep carrying an assault rifle. The assassin fled when he noticed Alinejad was on a Zoom call. She escaped death by sheer coincidence.
Even a phone call made in the United States can have serious repercussions for foreign dissidents. Saudi Arabia has an extensive apparatus for spying on Saudis living overseas, with the government deploying phone taps, in person harassment, and online abuse to quell dissent.
In retaliation to remarks made during a private phone call in Boston, the Saudi regime sentenced Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud to 30 years in prison. With ever-more sophisticated means of surveilling dissidents, it is imperative for the United States to send a clear message to foreign governments seeking to endanger the lives of those living in America by passing the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024.
When the Indian, Chinese, Iranian, Saudi Arabian, or any other governments make it dangerous to raise our voices in the United States, our First Amendment freedoms as Americans are at stake. When authoritarian organizations abroad export their tactics overseas, the lives of Americans are subject to authoritarian pressures at home.
Surveillance systems will only grow more sophisticated with time, making it easier to monitor and threaten foreign dissidents. The U.S. Congress must act quickly to oppose transnational repression. Our elected legislators should lend their full support to the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 to protect the freedom of speech, ensure the security of all Americans, and make clear that authoritarian repression–or worse–will not be tolerated in the United States.