Long before Canada’s murder allegation, Indian spies invaded the West.
Reuters, NEW DELHI, Oct. 4 – The foreign intelligence service of India is a feared adversary in the region; Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal have all accused it of interfering in politics and working with violent, illegal organisations.
Now, the covert Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in Delhi has been under the spotlight due to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim made last month that Indian government agents were involved in the June shooting of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a suburb of Vancouver.
India vehemently refuted the accusations and requested that Canada, which had already removed RAW’s station chief, provide proof. Ottawa claimed to have given allies access to the proof but will not make it available to the general public.
Four retired and two active Indian security and intelligence officials who are aware with RAW told Reuters that the organisation was inspired to take on a more assertive international role in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai bombings, which claimed 166 lives. The officials talked under the condition of anonymity in order to talk about private issues.
Four insiders claimed that after 2008, RAW gradually widened its influence in Western countries. A current official attributed RAW’s desire to strengthen its influence in the West to India’s inability to obtain the extradition of a U.S. citizen found guilty of taking part in the Mumbai attack.
According to one current official and one former official, RAW is still heavily reliant on human intelligence for its operations in the West even if it has advanced signal and technical intelligence capabilities in its near neighbourhood.
According to five of the officials, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has strengthened India’s defence capabilities and cultivated a strongman image, which has given RAW and other parts of the country’s national security apparatus more confidence.
An inquiry for comment for this story was not answered by Modi’s office.
The only currently employed member of the agency’s public family, RAW Chief Ravi Sinha, did not respond to requests for comment. Ajit Doval, the influential national security adviser who reports to Modi’s office through Sinha, also did not respond to a request for comment.
All six of the officials refuted claims that RAW carries out targeted assassinations, pointing out that such activities are not part of the agency’s remit.
Concerns about RAW being more closely watched internationally have also been raised in the wake of the Vancouver event, according to Indian intelligence officers and analysts.
According to Dheeraj Paramesha Chaya, a specialist in Indian intelligence at Britain’s Hull University, “the recent developments have undoubtedly increased global curiosity about RAW.” He asserted that closer understanding of Delhi’s security concerns might result from more Western scrutiny of RAW’s operations.
As tensions with China have increased, the West has increased its military and intelligence collaboration with Delhi. In 2020, Washington agreed to share classified satellite and mapping data with India.
According to one of the officials, Canada’s claim may make it more difficult for Western nations to have faith in RAW in the near future.
Since Trudeau made his accusations public, there has been a diplomatic impasse between Ottawa and Delhi. India has asked Ottawa to scale back its diplomatic representation and halted the issuing of new visas to Canadians.
