If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences

For years, India objected to Western strategists lumping it together with its violent and chaotic neighbour in the phrase “Indo-Pakistan”. Now recognised as a fast-growing giant and a potential bulwark against China, India claims to have been “de-hyphenated”. Yet the aired this week by Justin Trudeau suggests that diplomatic recalibration may have gone too far. Canada’s prime minister alleges that Indian agents were involved in the murder in Vancouver of a Canadian citizen sympathetic to India’s . India has long been accused of assassinating militants and dissidents in its own region; never previously in the friendly and orderly West. And though India calls the victim, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a terrorist, and had offered a reward for information leading to his arrest, he had rebuffed Indian allegations linking him to separatist violence.India denies everything. But Canada is reported to have shared intelligence about the murder with its allies in the “Five Eyes” pact. None appears to have questioned it. Shortly after Mr Trudeau levelled the charge in Canada’s parliament, America and Britain released cautiously supportive statements, urging India to co-operate with a Canadian probe. The killing, by two unknown gunmen outside a Sikh temple in June, followed a spike in both Sikh separatist activity and at times heavy-handed Indian suppression of it.