PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC – The Narendra Modi-led government in India is using transnational repression (TNR) tactics within the United States to silence critics of the prime minister and his Hindu-centric government, a report released by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) has said.
The report, released on Thursday, said Indian consulates are playing a key role in that repression.
The report, titled “Transnational Repression: The Modi Regime’s Targeting of Critics in the United States,” documents how Indian consulates and state-aligned actors have deployed at least 9 of the 11 forms of TNR tactics recognised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). These include direct surveillance, harassment, threats to family members in India, and denial of consular services — all aimed at intimidating diaspora activists, journalists, scholars, and human rights defenders.
According to the report, these tactics have created a “chilling climate of fear” among Indian Americans, leading to widespread self-censorship and undermining the First Amendment freedoms of speech and association. In particular, the report found that Indian consulates play a key role in perpetrating transnational repression from abroad by “serving as the long arm of the Indian government within the United States, infiltrating diaspora communities with undercover agents, undermining routine citizenship processes, and denying Indian Americans their constitutional rights.”
Additionally, the report finds that transnational repression committed by the Modi government in the United States represents an extension of his regime’s authoritarian and Hindutva-based domestic policy.
The report also features previously unpublished testimonies from activists, journalists, and academics who say they have faced intimidation, surveillance, harassment, or monitoring of their activities in the US by Indian agents. Some report being denied routine consular services or having family members in India threatened.
Drawing connections between these repressive tactics in the United States and broader global trends, the IAMC report argues that these operations are not isolated but part of a larger transnational strategy to suppress dissent beyond India’s borders
To mark the release of the report, IAMC hosted a panel discussion titled “Silencing Dissent: Modi Regime’s Transnational Repression in the US”. The event brought together scholars, policy experts, and human rights advocates to discuss the implications of the report’s findings.
“What I found in compiling the report was that the well-publicised assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and the attempted assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York were really just the tip of the iceberg,” said report author and journalist Morley Musick. “The Modi-led Indian government actually uses a much wider array of tactics to suppress dissidents and religious minorities living abroad. We found that at least nine out of the eleven forms of transnational repression identified by the FBI were deployed here in the US,” he said.
Yana Gorokhovskaia, Research Director at Freedom House and an authority on transnational repression, framed India’s actions within a global trend of autocratic regimes targeting exiled dissidents.
“[Our] database now contains 1,219 incidents of transnational repression perpetrated by 48 governments, which is about a quarter of the world’s governments,” said Gorokhovskaia. “India is one of the countries that we [see] in terms of the perpetrator state.”
Among these countries, Gorokhovskaia stated that “what makes India unique is that there are credible allegations that the Indian government has targeted people living in democracies, including in Canada and the United States and the United Kingdom.”
She added, “This notion of using access to consular services, using access to passports and visas and other statuses to deter people from expressing dissent or using their freedom of expression rights, is one of the other unique features of the transnational repression perpetrated by the Indian government.”
Dr Ather Zia, a Kashmiri anthropologist and author, spoke on the implications of TNR in the context of Kashmir.
“We saw this re-internationalisation of the Kashmir issue in the global community, especially here in the US [in] 2019… There was a lot of conversation around autonomy being unilaterally, militarily taken away by India. And slowly and steadily now, we do not hear the voices anymore,” said Dr Zia. “And I think that for all of us who are watching Kashmir and the Kashmiri diaspora, it should be a moment of reflection… Where are those voices? Why are people so quiet?”
“Fewer voices are wanting to talk about what’s happening inside Kashmir when they know that the repercussions are not only going to be felt back there, but are going to be felt here as well,” she added. “The persecution [in Kashmir] is not just [that] someone will be detained. The persecution is also the demolition of properties. They slap different laws on people which call them terrorists, and suddenly they become killable. You can demolish homes, you can put them in jails, you can confiscate their property, and you can appropriate their lands.”
“The transnational repression that happens every day, that happens in silent ways… it’s the repression of family members back there, it is taking away the documentation that allows you to move freely across the globe and also exist within India itself,” said Dr Zia. “The other insidious side of that is that people do not talk about it. The cases that [the report] specifies are some of the people… who have gone public because they had no other option.”
Mannirmal Kaur, Senior Federal Policy Manager at the Sikh Coalition, highlighted how Sikh Americans have long experienced threats and surveillance related to their political views. “We have long been aware, even as a domestic civil rights organisation, that there are members of our community who have long suspected that the Indian government reaches beyond its own borders to attempt to silence or harass members of the Sikh community and others,” said Kaur.
Kaur also emphasised the importance of intercommunity solidarity when raising awareness about TNR.
“It’s one thing when a member of Congress’s office is hearing from the Sikh community that the government of India is engaged in this transnational targeting… But I think it’s really important that these folks are not just hearing that from the Sikh community,” said Kaur. “Coming from a broader coalition of the diaspora, I think that those messages are more powerful and have more credence to lawmakers who are hearing about this for the first time.”
