US President Joe Biden will not attend the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26 next year. In their bilateral meeting on September 8 on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Biden to be the chief guest at the R-Day celebrations. The QUAD meeting, too, has been postponed and will be held later in 2024.
Some media reports suggested that Mr. Biden traveled to India following the controversy surrounding the so-called plot to kill Khalistani terrorist and Sikh advocate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.
How credible are the claims of Biden’s ‘snub’ in India?
The so-called total killing of Khalistani Pannun militants is only a small part of the larger fabric of Indo-US relations. It is not intended to be a foundation. The reason Joe Biden canceled his visit, which was announced by the US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti in September, is mainly because of the US President’s State of the Union address that is expected to take place on January 30.
This is a very important address because after this, Mr. Biden goes to the presidential election. In January 2025, you will have a new US President. It is another matter that the last address was held on February 9.
Secondly, the main reason why the US president is not coming is because the QUAD meeting has been postponed. The meeting was postponed mainly because the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not be able to attend because he is facing serious problems in his circumstances due to the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the Japanese parliament dinner is underway and Kishida is expected to be in Tokyo to attend.
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Third, Australia’s National Day falls on January 26, 2024. Therefore, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could not act before that. Therefore, the only available date was January 27, which was very close. Biden’s political advisers told him that the date was too close to his State of the Union address. As a result, the president of the United States decided to stop looking at his political constituency while losing to the politics of Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the so-called total killing of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Did the story of Gurpatwant Pannun come to light during the FBI director’s visit to India?
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray was in town for three days. He met CBI director, RAW secretary Ravi Sinha, DG NIA Dinkar Gupta and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
The story of Pannun was not discussed. These discussions took place on Khalista events in the United States, especially events at the Indian embassy in San Francisco, events in Sacramento and the Eastern Coast. Discussions also took place on how to prevent money laundering, join hands in the fight against terrorism and ensure that funding to terrorist groups is stopped.
The reason Pannun is not a priority is that the NSA chairs a committee that is looking into what the US Department of Justice has been accused of. The trial has come but the evidence has not yet been shared. Once the evidence is shared, the Indian side will take countermeasures to ensure that such incidents do not happen again, if India has ever been involved in this.
