Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement Monday to expel six Indian diplomats after an investigation found that India’s government was tied to the murder of several Sikh activists and a campaign of repression has sent shock waves across the border, and especially in California.

“The evidence brought to light by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) cannot be ignored,” Trudeau said at the news conference. “It leads to one conclusion, it is necessary to disrupt the criminal activities that continue to pose a threat to public safety in Canada. That’s is why we acted.”

The action also spotlights the issue of transnational repression, which reverberates in California, where Sikhs have embarked this month on a 350-mile march from Bakersfield to Sacramento.

One of the purposes behind the “Fearless for Justice March” is to protest transnational repression, the effort by foreign governments to intimidate citizens in other countries. The U.S. has the third largest Sikh population outside of India, with the vast majority, about 250,000, in California.

“The news is staggering,” said Arjun Sethi, a Georgetown University law professor and an expert in TNR. “The very highest levels of the Indian government approved the assassination of Sikhs in North America, consular officials in Canada gathered intelligence on Sikhs, and then contracted with organized crime to carry out violence and murder of Sikhs.”

Canada’s investigation into Indian TNR followed the June 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who advocated for an independent Khalistan in what is now the Indian state of Punjab. According to the RCMP, the clandestine criminal activities involved diplomats working with a crime syndicate known as the Bishnoi gang, named for its leader Lawrence Bishnoi, a Sikh who opposes a separate Khalistan state.

Although Bishnoi is in prison in India awaiting trial on at least 40 murder charges, he is said to operate his cartel from there. According to the RCMP, the crime syndicate engaged in a host of violent crimes, including drive-by shootings, murder and blackmail, with the Indian government as its client.

The expulsions escalated the conflict between Canada and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. India denied the accusations and asked Canada to withdraw its diplomatic staff. According to Human Rights Watch, the Modi ruling party promotes Hindu supremacy (known as Hindutva) and “has fueled and encouraged violence against religious minorities,” including Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians.

Dr. Pritpal Singh, a California-based Sikh leader, called the events stunning.

“Sikhs are under threat from criminal syndicates backed by India, and at the same time there, there appears to be a concerted efforts to discredit law-abiding Americans to law enforcement,” he said. “This coordinated strategy clearly needs to be investigated.”

California ties

Two sources familiar with an FBI probe into TNR, and who did not wish to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said agents have been investigating Bishnoi gang activities in California and seeking information about Goldy Brar, a prominent alleged gang member believed to have been in the U.S., and Bishnoi’s brother Anmol.

India alleged that Nijjar was a terrorist, but he led a movement to hold Khalistan referendum votes around the world.

After his death, the once-obscure cause has become more popular. An estimated 50,000 Sikhs turned out to vote on a Khalistan referendum in March in San Francisco and Sacramento.

Sikhs believe India has unleashed a TNR campaign against them.

For example, Naindeep Singh, a Fresno school board official and leader of a Sikh human rights organization, said he believed he was followed for months.

“I’m starting to put two-and-two together,” he said following Canada’s announcement. “I now suspect whoever was following me was either from the Indian consulate or someone connected to the government of India.”

Paco Balderrama, the former police chief of Fresno, said he was asked by a group of Modi supporters to follow Singh. They falsely claimed Singh was a terrorist and linked to organized crime. The request was rejected.

Singh said he believes he was followed nonetheless.

“At first I thought, ‘am I being paranoid?’” he said. “So I would speed up, take sudden or obscure turns. I still had my tail.”

Asked why he didn’t report the incident to law enforcement, Singh said: “I thought it was law enforcement.” He was aware of the earlier meeting held between Balderrama, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer and a group of Modi followers.

Balderrama met with Singh last week following a Sacramento Bee story about overtures by Modi-aligned groups to California law enforcement.

The presence of TNR

On Monday, Trudeau cast Canada’s efforts as protecting democracy.

“It is my responsibility to provide reassurance to those who are feeling their safety has been compromised, but most importantly, it is my responsibility to take action and to never hesitate in doing what is necessary to protect Canadians,” he said. “That is precisely what we are doing today.”

Even though TNR has become a household word in Canada, in California it remains obscure, even to law enforcement.

An August freeway shooting targeted three local leaders on Interstate 505 about 11 miles from Woodland. Ruben Jones, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol division investigating the shooting, when asked about the possibility of transnational repression, said: “I do not know what that is, I guess that someone wanted to shut these guys up. There was a shooting and we are investigating it.”

The Hindu American Foundation, a non-profit with close ties to the Modi government, held training sessions in April for federal and state officials about the Khalistani movement, with one session entitled “Hate Violence and Extremism.”

Training documents read like Indian government propaganda. The assassinated leader Nijjar, according to the training, was a terrorist. The training sessions accused the Khalistan movement in California and around the world for defacing Hindu temples.

Prior to the training, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen held multiple meetings with HAF and, at HAF’s request, encouraged DA’s, police chiefs and the CHP to attend the training.

The Hindu American PAC is currently circulating a questionnaire to California candidates stating that state legislative initiatives to deal with TNR and caste discrimination target Indian Americans and ignore pro-Khalistan terrorism. The questionnaire asks candidates whether they would pledge to oppose such legislation.

A transnational repression bill that had passed the state Assembly 72-0 died in an appropriations committee after a lobbying blitz by a Modi-aligned nonprofit, which argued that the bill promoted Hinduphobia and was at odds with federal authority. The bill had widespread support from California sheriffs.

“In the U.S., pro-Hindutva nationalists continue to spread disinformation about Sikhs to law enforcement and lawmakers, particularly in California,” Sethi said. “Suggestions that Sikhs who exercise their speech and association rights are somehow criminals or terrorists is harmful and very much intended to chill protected expression.”

The march to the Capitol

Singh is one of the leaders of the march from Bakersfield to Fresno. The march has two purposes, organizers say: to protest the TNR Sikhs have been experiencing in California and around the world; and to commemorate a 1984 Sikh genocide in India.

“We are all quite tired and stunned by the developments from Canada,” said Singh, reached at the end of a 15-mile walk between Tulare and Visalia. “It’s both validating of what a lot of us have been going through, and it’s terrifying. I feel lucky to be alive.”

Singh said he and the marchers would like to see a federal probe into illicit involvement by India in the political arena and in law enforcement.

Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, authored the TNR bill which failed. She said she, too, is stunned by the extent of Canadian officials findings.

“I’m still taking it in,” she said.

Bains said her life has been deeply altered by transnational repression.

“I’m always a little worried after all the threats I’ve received and some scary conversations with the FBI,” she said. Bains said she is talking with legislators about recrafting another TNR bill.

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