US President-elect, Donald Trump, has nominated Chandigarh-born attorney Harmeet Kaur Dhillon as the Assistant Attorney General. While nominating Dhillon, Trump said, ‘(Dhillon) is a respected member of the Sikh religious community.’ Dhillon is among several other high profile appointments by Trump before he takes his oath of office on 20 Jan 2025 as the 47th President of the US. The other appointments are Tulsi Gabbard, from European-Samoan descent who practices the Hindu religion, as Director of National Intelligence, Indian origin Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy who will head a newly created Department of Government Efficiency along with Tesla owner Elon Reeve Musk, and Indian origin Kashyap Pramod Vinod “Kash” Patel as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Usha Bala Chilukuri Vance, wife of US vice president-elect JD Vance is also of Indian origin. Usha will assume the role of Second Lady of the US, becoming the first Indian and Hindu-American to hold the title. Indian media has been praising the nominees except Dhillon, where they remain critical. Dhillon has been an ardent critic of the BJP-led Indian govt. In September 2023, when Canadian PM Justin Trudeau revealed India’s role in the June 2023 assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, Canada, Dhillon accused India of operating ‘death squads’ (those posts have now been deleted on X). Even during the Farmers Protest 1.0, she had posted to X, ‘My heart breaks to see Punjabi farmers assaulted for protesting Indian gov’t.’s pro-big-corporation Farm Bill that will destroy their farms, way of life, and culture,’ asking Indian PM Narendra Modi to meet farmers.
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