During the Cold War, Western democracies often allowed their partners and allies in distant corners of the world to brutalise their citizens for the sake of paramount geopolitical goals. Now that a second Cold War may well have begun, must we allow our own citizens to be brutalised by our allies and partners? That, at least, is the unavoidable question after Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, announced that his government had credible evidence that the Indian state was involved in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, in a Vancouver suburb in June.
The truth is that the reaction to the assassination of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil has been remarkably muted. We know that Western leaders were fully aware of the accusation and the evidence supporting it when they visited Delhi for the G20 meeting this month. They still joined in all the celebrations, competing to fete Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister.
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