WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): On Wednesday, January 24th, 2024, Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission released the following statement, opening up inquiries concerning ways the Indian Government may have been tampering with Canadian elections:

“Pursuant to its Terms of Reference, the Foreign Interference Commission has requested that the Government of Canada’s collection and production of document relating to paragraphs clause (a)(i)(A) and (a)(i)(B) of its Terms of Reference include information and documents relating to alleged interference by India related to the 2019 and 2021 elections.” The FIC was formed in September 2023, and had announced at the time it would be investigating election interference from China and Russia, as well as any other “foreign actors” who may have interfered with elections. India has now been publicly implicated as one of those foreign actors.

This comes on the heels of Canadian officials accusing the Indian Government of orchestrating the assassination of Canadian Citizen Harpreet Singh Nijjar, a strong critic of the Indian Government who was killed in front of his Gurdwara in British Columbia last June. Clearly Canada’s government believes India has the ability to send covert operatives into foreign countries to illegally enforce their will on the world stage. They have also made it clear they will have zero tolerance for any kind of transnational repression like this within their borders.

We believe the same thing is occurring within the United States, and we call on our government officials to apply the same diligence our Canadian neighbors are doing to protect the rights of their citizens.

United States officials have already implicated Indian national Nikhil Gupta as a go-between, hired by the Indian Government to coordinate the assassination of Nijjar, as well as a New York lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the head of ‘Sikhs for Justice in the US. Thankfully, the plot to kill Pannun was thwarted by undercover officers. According to an October 19th article in the Sacramento Bee, many United States citizens who have been criticizing the Indian Government have had their lives threatened, and have been warned by the FBI that they are being watched by operatives of the Indian government on American soil.

Such operatives have also been extending their influence on US elections. For example, in 2010 and 2012, California Congressman Ami Bera’s father, Babula Bera, illegally siphoned funds into his son’s campaign, which contributed to Ami Bera winning an extremely close election in 2013. According to Fox 40 News, “The elder Bera was convicted of paying friends and strangers to make contributions to his son’s congressional campaign — more than 130 contributions to the tune of $260,000.” While Congressman Bera claimed to have no knowledge of his father’s actions, he never took responsibility for the fact that since more than ten percent of his campaign funds had been obtained by illegal means, he should have ceded his seat in congress.

The entire ordeal has been highly suspicious, especially since further investigation revealed that Babula Bera had been involved in an ongoing illegal “shell game” fundraising scheme, which including partnering with supporters of Louisiana Congressional candidate Ravi Sangisetty. Families of both candidates have strong ties to India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In 2020, Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard, a practicing Hindu, was photographed wearing a BJP scarf, draped over her by a supporter. The image later drew much scrutiny, but she responded to concerned members of the public by stating “Sometimes, as we’re standing … people come up and they want to take a picture. Somebody put something around my neck and snapped a picture without my knowing what it was…That’s the reality of …what happened in the picture…Any implication or accusation or efforts to elicit some kind of suspicion about me or my motives can only be attributed to religious bigotry because I’m a practicing Hindu.” Such claims seem hollow in light of her documented attendance at multiple Overseas Friends of the BJP fundraising events. Further, she eventually dropped out of the election after credible evidence emerged that she was in fact a member of the RSS, the Hindu Nationalist organization behind India’s BJP. The BJP’s illegal involvement in her campaign is further backed by statements from Vijay Chauthaiwale, the head of the BJP’s foreign policy department.

In September, 2020, while Gabbard was running for President, Chauthaiwale bragged to Indian press about what he had accomplished through the Overseas Friends of the BJP in the United States, and then added instructions he gave its members on the need to be covert with respect to their relationship to the BJP. “The OFBJP-USA members can participate in the US election campaign and support any candidate or a party in their personal capacity but they have been instructed not to use BJP or OFBJP name during the campaign,” he said.

These are just some instances of ties between BJP money and American politicians. Many more exist. Many American agencies have uncovered and made public election tampering by Russia and China. Given that we now know a plethora of Indian government operatives have entrenched themselves on American soil with the specific intent of exerting Indian power and influence on American citizens, we strongly urge our leaders to follow the example of our Canadian neighbors, and investigate India’s interference in American elections. This degree of transnational repression should not be tolerated by any democracy, Organization of Minorities of India, said in a statement sent to The Indian Panorama.