Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican leader and lawyer from California who backed the farmers’ protests in 2020 and slammed India for allegedly plotting assassinations of Sikhs in North America more recently, as the assistant attorney general in charge of civil rights in the Department of Justice.
The position will give Dhillon direct authority over the grievances of Sikh-Americans who have alleged that the Government of India is engaging in “transnational repression” — a charge Delhi rejects and she has endorsed — and a seat in the room on discussions related to the ongoing cases against Nikhil Gupta and Vikash Yadav, implicated in the assassination plot of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US-Canada dual national who India designates as a terrorist.
A Sikh-American whose Twitter handle is @pnjaban, Dhillon was born in Chandigarh before her parents moved to the US. She attended Dartmouth College and read law at the University of Virginia. But her rise owes both to her activism in the Republican party — she stood for elections and served as the party chair of the California unit — and her involvement in legal battles close to the Republican platform — she has fought against Covid-19 restrictions, gender transitions, and for free speech. Dhillon has been a strong Trump supporter and offered a Sikh prayer at the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee.
Announcing the nomination, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during Covid, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers. Harmeet is one of the top Election lawyers in the Country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted…Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community. In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY.”
Dhillon has often expressed critical views of Indian government’s actions vis-a-vis the Sikh community.
In March 2024, quote tweeting an Economist story that documents how PM Narendra Modi was leveraging the Indian diaspora, Dhillon posted on X, “Also assassinating India’s critics in the diaspora. Full service!” When someone responded by asking her who got assassinated, Dhillon replied, “Look up “India” and “transnational repression” and you will learn all about it.” Dhillon’s law firm partner, JPS Deol, posted on the same thread, “They can’t decide whether they deny it or celebrate it.”
In December 2023, she posted a story from The Intercept that alleged the existence of a “secret” Indian government “memo” instructing attacks on Sikh activists. Dhillon posted, “India’s death squads targeting diaspora Sikhs, documented in high-level memo: Secret Indian Memo Ordered “Concrete Measures” Against Hardeep Singh Nijjar Two Months Before His Assassination in Canada.” There are serious doubts about the veracity of this memo. India has also rejected the allegations implicating it in the Nijjar killing.
In November 2023, quote tweeting a Financial Times story that offered details on the US allegations around the Pannun assassination plot, Dhillon posted on X, “India has sent death squads to target North American Sikhs outspoken on civil and human rights conditions in Punjab, both to Canada and now the US. Will our government do anything about it or just pander endlessly over artificial DEI nonsense? Lives are at risk.”
In September 2023, right after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau had alleged that agents linked with the government of India were involved in an assassination plot, she lauded Canada’s conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre for joining others in condemning the “extrajudicial murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar”, and said, “Good to see them unite against this shocking act.”
In March 2023, Dhillon posted a Reuters story about a US report alleging human rights abuses in India and listed the “shutdown of Internet, punishing tens of millions of innocent people in an arbitrary/anti democratic manner & targeting Sikh journalist/activist media accounts” as specific abuses.
Dhillon was also a strong diaspora voice during the farmers’ protests.
In February 2020, Dhillon said she stood with “my brothers and sisters from the farming life in Punjab and other agricultural communities”. “They deserve to be heard, not beaten and abused.”
But Dhillon has also appreciated India when Delhi opened doors for Sikh terror victims from Afghanistan. In July 2020, she posted, “Grateful to India for giving refuge to these Sikh terror victims. It is heartbreaking that after generations of living in Afghanistan the terrorists killed so many and drove away the rest.”
Dhillon will report to Attorney General Pam Bondi and work closely with FBI director Kash Patel — assuming all three are confirmed by the Senate. Patel is a strong supporter of the India-US relationship and in an interview with HT earlier this year, spoke of Trump’s personal bonhomie with Modi and their convergence on China and terrorism.
