File picture of U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Modi government’s announcement of the results of its high-level inquiry into the Pannun case was a “positive first step”, but not the end of the U.S.’s expectations of action in the alleged assassination plot, said outgoing U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti in New Delhi on Thursday (January 16, 2025).

In the first official reaction to the government’s statement that it had identified an “individual”, believed to be a former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) official, as responsible for the conspiracy to assassinate Khalistani activist Pannun, Mr. Garcetti welcomed the statement and said it must now lead to a full prosecution. He also called for “systemic change” to ensure this doesn’t “happen again”.

“It wasn’t just about identifying them, it will be about a prosecution, which they alluded to [in the statement],” Mr. Garcetti told The Hindu in an interview before demitting office. “I think we were clear, this has to be about accountability and systemic change and never happening again,” he added.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a chargesheet in the case in New York.

When asked if the U.S. would now demand the extradition of the individual identified but not named as former intelligence official Vikash Yadav, Mr. Garcetti said that the case would proceed in the United States “independent from anything here in India”. He said that the U.S. wants India to “take seriously any malfeasance that has happened”, and encouraged “Indian counterparts to share information and hold people accountable for provable crimes where they are”. He denied that the Pannun case investigation, that has been raised by the U.S. government at several levels, including between the two leaders, as well as the recent DoJ indictment of the Adani Group for alleged corrupt practices, had overshadowed his tenure.

“We’ve broken more records in two years, and I think we lose sight of what the core of this relationship is and its accomplishments, if we let the clickable moments overshadow the truth,” he said, referring to “record” figures in trade, defence exercises, visas and students travelling to the U.S. “It’s not whether you love each other… It’s whether after a fight, you can navigate through that,” he added, likening the India-U.S. relationship to a marriage.

Mr. Garcetti, a political appointee of the Biden administration who took charge as U.S. Ambassador to India in May 2023, is expected to step down as the next U.S. President, Donald Trump, will be sworn in on January 20. When asked, he denied any knowledge of the invitations to various world leaders for the inauguration, and whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been excluded for any reason. He said he expected to hear an announcement on high-level contact between the Modi government and the new Trump administration in the next few days, as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will represent India at the ceremony in Washington.

Mr. Garcetti said he expected the next steps in the agreement for transfer of technology for the GE-414 jet engine deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to be completed in due course. He denied that any delay in the agreement could be compared to the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement, where more than 15 years after the original memoranda were signed, and a decade since Mr. Modi and U.S. President Obama announced the deal “was done”, no U.S. company set up a nuclear power plant in India, primarily due to legal issues with India’s civil liability law.

“This is for India to resolve on its own, but it is the responsibility of the historic agreement we made almost 20 years ago to conclude this agreement, and it is a lost opportunity if we don’t,” Mr. Garcetti added.

U.S. government officials have said repeatedly, including during visits by NSA Jake Sullivan and State Department officials to New Delhi, that India must acknowledge the seriousness of the U.S.’s allegations, ensure a prosecution of those responsible for targeting Pannun as well as an assurance that there would not be another such attempt on U.S. soil. In contrast to the flat denial of similar allegations by the Canadian government, that has alleged Indian intelligence officials were responsible for the killing of a Khalistani activist there as well, India had agreed to institute a high-level enquiry committee to look into the U.S. allegations in November 2023.

On Wednesday, the government announced that “after a long enquiry”, the committee had recommended legal action “against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry”, and also recommended “functional improvements in systems and procedures as also initiation of steps that could strengthen India’s response capability, ensure systematic controls and coordinated action in dealing with matters like this”.

In a report released this month to the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs had also revealed that “covert actions are being taken for dismantling the terrorist networks and safe havens functioning across India’s borders as any overt actions will lead to breach of international law,” without furnishing further details of its actions in neighbouring countries.