Nijjar killing: Has India finally done an Adolf Eichmann?

Kolkata: On May 11, 1960, a crack team of Mossad and Shin Bet operatives abducted the demonic Nazi Eichmann in Buenos Aires and transported him to Tel Aviv in a breathtaking operation. 

On June 18, 2023, Harjeet Singh Niggar, a Khalistani terrorist, was eliminated in Vancouver by clandestine Indian operatives, if Trudeau is to be believed. Not just G20 and UPI, we indeed have come of age as a nation. 

The spiritual guru of overseas heists is indeed Israel and their scorecard is staggering. Operation Wrath of God was even more famous than the Argentinian adventure when the Black September and PLO fellows who murdered their eleven athletes in the Munich Olympics were systematically eliminated. 

At Idi Amin’s Entebbe in 1976, Operation Jonathan led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother ensured the release of an Air France jet hijacked on the Paris-Tel Aviv beat, leading to a scintillating movie as well. 

Over the post-war decades, Simon Wiesenthal's Nazi-hunting crews have done the gory needful in many parts of the world. Given the context of the horrifying holocaust, the Israeli deeds earn deserving empathy, unlike the Soviet or Russian explorations. 

In 1940, Leon Trotsky, Stalin’s adversary, was murdered by NKVD agents in Mexico City, thus concluding the opportunity for a power struggle. 

The Cold War over the decades had led to several such encores, for lesser adversaries certainly. 

More recently, Putin’s goons have been consistent in doing short work on foes, Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning in London more sophisticated than the recent episode of the Wagner mercenary army chief. 

North Korean goons famously killed the dissident son Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur Airport ( 2017) and there are other such sequels. Al Qaeda and their Islamic peers are less sophisticated and prefer direct assaults on random citizens, as proven by 9/11 and much more. 

In the context of the above, how exactly is India’s encounter in Canada a symbol of pride, if at all true? 

The answer lies in a larger context of national evolution, truthful without being ideal. Wherein the ability of a country to exercise its opportune influence must be exercised beyond the conventions of diplomacy, or normal warfare. 

A facility that has been exercised by CIA, KGB, MI6 and more during their lengthy tenures over the passage of history. It smells of chutzpah but is actually an indicator of self-confidence, not quite a third-world stock in trade. Especially in the hallowed confines of the much-celebrated First World. 

For most Indians born in the 1970s, the Khalistani movement is a tragedy that knows no comparison and this is not a political conversation. Hindus and Sikhs have been aligned inseparably for centuries, bearing the boons and sufferings of the Partition with equal intensity. 

Jagjit Singh Chohan perpetrated the agony which was later brought to bloody fruition by Bhindranwale and his peers, truthfully a failure of domestic policies. 

Then, of course, the establishment-encouraged riots post the assassination of Nehru’s daughter in 1984, whose backlash persists to this very day. S S Ray and a concerted momentum of mainstream integration built peace in Punjab, currently threatened by the Canada insurgents, descendants of the Air India Kanishka criminals in thinking. 

Surely there could be diplomatic mechanisms in managing this process, but then Trudeau seems a little dodgy, with a track record of being off the mainstream. 

So if Ajit Doval and his boys and girls worked out a Plan B, that is perfectly kosher under current circumstances of global geopolitics. 

Perhaps inspired by Golda Meir and her successors, but that is actually a valid and valuable benchmark. Given the sanctity of our ambitions as a nation and as individuals, 

Perhaps, all of the above is not true and the answer lies in a development that occurred on August 15, 2023. When Akshay Kumar renounced his Canadian citizenship and decided to be unequivocally, the son-in-law of Rajesh Khanna, a patriot. 

His movies over the decades have built a persona of righteousness that is reasonably absolute and never quite relative. It is entirely plausible that in an act of reality-fiction integration, a French Foreign Legion equivalent may have been commissioned to address the issues. Do consider this hypothesis in jest, albeit sincerely. 

When Adolf Eichmann was tried in Israel and sent off to the final solution, the civilised world was publicly critical but secretly appreciative. Exactly the task that is sought from every patriotic Indian, sincere about the integrity of the soil. The Khalistani strains must be demolished and only Patiala pegs will suffice, ceteris paribus.