Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The reversal of its earlier stand by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) not only marks a major turning point in the Indo-Canadian diplomatic relations but also displays a conscious reframing of Canada’s official narrative surrounding the alleged operations of Lawrence Bishnoi gang.Speaking about the Lawrence Bishnoi gang’s footprints on the Canadian underworld crime, the RCMP chief Mike Duheme told a Canadian news channel that some individuals may be using the Bishnoi name as copycats. “So there are two things when we’re talking about the Bishnoi gang…The Nijjar case which is before the courts and I’m not going to comment.. But there have also been extortion files that have popped up over the last year that have linked or allegedly linked to Bishnoi. The challenge sometimes that you have in this is that some groups may use Bishnoi’s name to advance their cause when it comes to extortion. So sometimes that’s a little hard to untangle,” he saidWhile the comment is significant given that the Lawrence Bishnoi – declared a terrorist entity in Canada – has been time and again accused of targeted killings and extortion threats of late, this distinction also suggests, official sources feel, a shift toward a more granular, evidence-based approach that seeks to decouple local criminal opportunism from high-level transnational conspiracies. The RCMP also seems to have distanced its current investigations from the broader, more explosive claims of a pervasive, centrally directed criminal network.RCMP’s new stand, being seen as the result of deliberations between PM Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney and the two NSAs, Ajit Doval and Nathalie G Drouin, also serves as a setback for pro-Khalistan elements within Canada which used the “indulgence” of the previous dispensation in Ottawa to create the perception in Punjab and elsewhere that their “cause” has begun to find acceptance in foreign capitals. For years, these radical groups have used the “Indian interference” narrative as a shield to deflect scrutiny from their own activities and to garner sympathy from the Canadian public, their govt and the international community.
