Will US-Indian relations be hurt by India’s assassination scheme?

IT IS A plot worthy of John le Carré. A shadowy figure in India recruits an international arms-and-drugs smuggler to organise a hit-job in New York. The smuggler recruits an assassin. The assassin turns out to work for America’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The man behind the foiled plot? An Indian government official.

The indictment America’s Justice Department unveiled on November 29th is an astonishing read. It lays out in bracing detail an alleged plot by an Indian official to kill Sikh activists in America (unsuccessfully) and Canada (successfully). It also describes the equally gripping ruse employed by American spies to foil the plot. This brings to a head a month-long diplomatic scandal over India’s alleged hitman schemes in North America, which began after Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, first raised them in that country’s parliament. The indictment has made India’s earlier denials ring hollow. It will also put stress on the improving relationship between India and the West, on intelligence co-operation in particular.