US: Rahul Still Harassed over 2024 Pro-Sikh Comment; Sikhs Face Online Vitriol

Indian National Congress' Leader of Indian Opposition Rahul Gandhi has approached the Allahabad High Court against an order of a special Member of Parliament & Member of Legislative Assembly (MP-MLA) Court, Varanasi. The court had directed a subordinate court to hear afresh an application seeking registration of an First Information Report (FIR) against him for his statement on Sikhs made during a 2024 visit to the United States. Rahul submitted he had not incited the Sikh community to rise in rebellion and that his entire speech was not considered by the court. The court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate MP-MLA, Varanasi, had on 28 Nov 2024, rejected the application filed by Nageshwar Mishra seeking registration of an FIR against Rahul. The court had observed that as the speech was given in the US, the matter is outside its jurisdiction. The attempts to keep Rahul tied in litigation is to wear him down and distract him from the number of issues he is raising against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s Indian government. Meanwhile, in the US, after the 12 Aug accident in which truck driver Harjinder Singh made a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike that authorities say caused a crash that killed three people, the Sikh community at large is facing online vitriol denigrating Sikhs who often covet high-paying trucking jobs that allow Sikh men to wear beards, uncut hair, and turbans. Truck driver Prabh Singh said, ‘People are saying: ‘Take the towel heads off the streets’ and ’make our roads safe by taking immigrants off the street.’ Singh is a US citizen who emigrated from India at age 8. ‘All of this before a judge gives a sentence.’ The North American Panjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. Chief Executive Officer Raman Singh Dhillon said, 'but advocacy groups estimate about 150K Sikh truck drivers work in the US. That number could be as high as 250K given the high demand for drivers post-pandemic' (earlier coverage).