Nijjar killing, attempt on Pannun's life part of 'single' plot, claims Canada's ex-envoy
New Delhi, Oct 20: The US indictment linking a former Indian agent to a foiled bid to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun paints a "compelling and detailed portrait" of "a single plot" emanating from Delhi to kill multiple targets across North America, especially in Canada and the US, Canada's most recent envoy to India Cameron MacKay has alleged.
In an interview to CBC News, MacKay, who left India in August, said both Canada and the US are probing the matter, adding it was "a fiasco on the part of the Indian government" to think that it could carry out crimes in Canada and the US and get away with it.
New Delhi expelled Canadian Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and five other diplomats following Ottawa's fresh allegations of the Indian government's involvement in the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil last year. The Canadian diplomats left New Delhi on Friday evening.
India also recalled its High Commissioner and five more diplomats and they are also on their way back to India. The Canadian government had said the Indian diplomats were expelled from the country.
India has strongly rejected all the allegations made by Ottawa in connection to the case relating to the killing of Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India.
In his comments to the Canadian broadcaster, MacKay alleged that the killing of Nijjar and the failed attempt to murder Pannun in the US are linked.
"The indictment and the charges in the United States just yesterday, and then the indictment that was released on November 29 of 2023 paint a really compelling and a rather detailed portrait of a single plot emanating from Delhi to kill multiple targets across North America, in Canada and the United States," MacKay claimed.
"So you put those two indictments together with the evidence that was released and the comments made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Monday, and you have a very clear picture, in fact, of what has been going on, for well over a year now," he alleged
The US has charged Vikas Yadav, a former Indian government official, in the alleged foiled plot to kill Pannun on American soil last year.
India has already set up a high-level committee to probe the allegations.
The US Attorney's Office in New York said on Thursday it registered "murder-for-hire and money laundering charges" against Yadav for trying to assassinate Pannun.
The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Trudeau's allegations in September last year of "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar. New Delhi rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd".
In his comments at the media briefing on Monday, Trudeau, referring to findings by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), claimed that it has "clear and compelling evidence that agents of the government of India have engaged in, and continue to engage in, activities that pose a significant threat to public safety."
"This includes clandestine information gathering techniques, coercive behaviour targeting South Asian Canadians, and involvement in over a dozen threatening and violent acts, including murder. This is unacceptable," he alleged.
The Canadian prime minister said his government's attempts to work with India did not yield any result.
India trashed Trudeau's charges.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Demolition of MGNREGA to have catastrophic consequences: Sonia Gandhi
New Delhi, Dec 22 (PTI): Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday said the "demolition" of the historic Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will have catastrophic consequences for crores of people across rural India and called upon all to unite and safeguard the rights that protect everyone.
In an editorial in 'The Hindu' titled "The bulldozed demolition of MGNREGA", the former Congress chief said the "death" of MGNREGA is a collective failure.
This comes a day after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which replaces the MGNREGA and has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.
ALSO READ: Delhi polluted owing to Aravalli, says anchor Rajat Sharma; netizens troll him
"MGNREGA realised the Mahatma's vision of Sarvodaya (welfare of all) and enacted the constitutional right to work," Gandhi said.
"It is imperative, now more than ever, to unite and safeguard the rights that protect us all," she added.
Gandhi said the employment guarantee scheme to deal with rural distress has now been "bulldozed and demolished".
MGNREGA was a rights-based legislation inspired by Article 41 of the Constitution of India, which calls upon the government to secure citizens' right to work, she said.
"Over the past few days, the Narendra Modi government worked to bulldoze MGNREGA's abolition without any discussion, consultation, or respect for parliamentary processes or Centre-State relations. The removal of the Mahatma's name was only the tip of the iceberg. The very structure of MGNREGA, so integral to its impact, has been annihilated," she said.
She described VB-G RAM G as "nothing but a set of bureaucratic provisions".
ALSO READ: Hindu outfit urges Karnataka governor to withhold assent to anti-hate speech bill
The Modi government's new Bill has restricted the ambit of the scheme to rural areas as notified by the Union at its discretion, Gandhi said.
Against uncapped central allocation, there is now a pre-determined budgetary allocation that caps the number of days of employment provided in each state. The number of workdays provided are, therefore, left to the Centre's priorities rather than the people's needs, she said, adding that the all-year guarantee of employment has been finished off.
Gandhi said one of the greatest impacts of MGNREGA was increased bargaining power of the landless poor in rural India, which elevated agricultural wages.
"This bargaining power will definitely be eroded under the new law. The Modi government is attempting to suppress wage growth and that too at a time when the proportion of employment in agriculture has risen for the first time since Independence, contrary to what should have been the case," she noted.
She also said by transferring a significant portion of the expense onto the states, the Modi government is discouraging them from providing work under the scheme. The finances of states, already under severe stress and strain, will be further devastated, the Congress leader said.
Under the VB-G RAM G Bill, the cost-sharing pattern is 60:40 between the Centre and states, 90:10 for northeastern and Himalayan states, and 100 per cent central funding for Union territories without legislatures.
Gandhi further said that aside from demolishing the demand-based nature of the programme, the Modi government has ended the decentralised nature of the scheme.
"The Modi government is resorting to fraudulent claims that it has enhanced the employment guarantee from 100 days (under MGNREGA) to 125 days. For all the reasons outlined above, that will certainly not be the case. Indeed, the real nature of the Modi government's intentions can be understood from its decade-long track record of throttling MGNREGA.
"It began with the Prime Minister's (in)famous mocking of the scheme on the floor of the House and proceeded apace through a 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy through, for instance, stagnant budgets, the use of disenfranchising technology and delayed payments to workers," she said in the article.
Gandhi said the demolition of the right to work must not be seen in isolation but as part of the long assault by the ruling establishment on the Constitution and its right-based vision for the country.
"The most fundamental right to vote is under unprecedented assault. The Right to Information has been desecrated with legislative changes that weaken the autonomy of Information Commissioners, and by wholesale exemptions from the Act for ill-defined 'personal information data," she said.
The Right to Education has been undermined and The Forest Rights Act, 2006, was markedly weakened by the Forest (Conservation) Rules (2022), which removed the gram sabha from any role in permitting the diversion of forest land, the Congress leader said, adding that The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 has been significantly diluted.
"Through the three black farm laws, the government attempted to deny farmers the right to a minimum support price. The National Food Security Act, 2013, may very well be next on the chopping block," Gandhi said.
