Sri Lanka, April 30 -- As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was enjoying the pomp and circumstance of a White House state visit last year his spy chiefs were plotting to assassinate a leading dissident on American soil, according to U.S. and Indian security officials.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill laid on all the trimmings, with lotus blooms, the symbol of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, decorating the south lawn, and a vegetarian chef flown in from California for the June 22 event.

Meanwhile, Modi's spy service was finalizing the hit, according to an explosive report in the Washington Post.

The assassination is a 'priority now,' wrote Vikram Yadav, an officer in India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy agency.

The idea...