On 15th July, local time, American lawyer and Republican Party official Harmeet Dhillon ended the Republican National Convention with a Sikh prayer. Dhillon’s prayer led to a meltdown on social media by the users who found it anti-Christian and apparently “blasphemous”.
X user YearOfTheKraken made a thread of such meltdowns. However, it has to be noted that Dhillon, on several occasions, has expressed pro-Khalistani sentiments. She has targeted the Indian government accusing it of killing Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, planning an attack on Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, and killing pro-Khalistani elements on foreign soil.
Meltdown over Sikh prayer
X user Afhasbara wrote, “Harmeet Dhillon prays to some satanic “god” at the RNC.
8. Blasphemous Meltdown pic.twitter.com/ag0URlzP1c
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) July 16, 2024
X user JNationalist1 wrote, “RNC 2024: ends with a Sikh witchcraft ritual. DNC 2020: Ends with a prayer in Jesus’s name.”
RNC 2024: ends with a Sikh witchcraft ritual
— Paleo (@JNationalist1) July 16, 2024
DNC 2020: Ends with a prayer in Jesus’s name pic.twitter.com/wASaJgXKO9
X user BehizyTweets wrote, “ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!! I have nothing but respect for Harmeet Dhillon but fire whoever invited her to pray to a foreign god, there is only one true God we pray to and his name is not whatever she said. His name is YAHWEH and his only begotten Son is Jesus Christ.”
ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!! I have nothing but respect for Harmeet Dhillon but fire whoever invited her to pray to a foreign god, there is only one true God we pray to and his name is not whatever she said. His name is YAHWEH and his only begotten Son is Jesus Christ pic.twitter.com/Vxiq4NSZdi
— George (@BehizyTweets) July 16, 2024
X user magicgrits_ wrote, “Why does the RNC have a time slot for a Sikh prayer to be sung and prayed to a false god.”
Why does the RNC have a time slot for a Sikh prayer to be sung and prayed to a false god
— magicgrits_ (@magicgrits_) July 16, 2024
pic.twitter.com/Mec7WiES0p
Harmeet Dhillon’s pro-Khalistani and anti-Indian government stance
While the attack on Harmeet Dhillon and Republicans for allowing the Sikh prayer to happen has shocked many Indians, it has to be noted that Dhillon is not very fond of India and Indian government. First and foremost, she came out in support of the pro-Khalistani elements and Canadian government over allegations against India in Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder case. On 19th September 2023, a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of killing Nijjar, Dhillon quoted Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre who supported Trudeau in attacking India.
Dhillon wrote, “Canada’s conservative leader joins other Canadian officials in condemning the extrajudicial murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Good to see them unite against this shocking act.” Notably, at that time, Trudeau did not provide any evidence to support his allegations and the Canadian government has yet to provide any substantial evidence against India.
In December 2023, she quoted US-based media house The Intercept’s dubious and baseless report against India where it was claimed that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a secret memo in April 2023. The news report claimed that the Indian government, in the memo, ordered its consulates in North America to launch a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” against ‘Sikh diaspora organisations’ in Western nations. Indian government categorically denied existence of any such memo.
In March this year, just ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, she quoted The Economist report on how Indian migrants were helping PM Narendra Modi in campaigning at home and lobbying for India abroad. Quoting the report, Dhillon again repeated the baseless accusations against India that the Indian government is assassinating critics in the diaspora.
In March 2023, she quoted a Reuters report on so-called Human Rights violations in India and asserted that the people of Punjab suffered due to the recent internet shutdown. She also claimed that Sikh journalists and activists were being targeted. The internet shutdown in Punjab she was referring to was done to stop the spread of misinformation during a crackdown against Khalistani sympathizer preacher-turned-MP Amritpal Singh. Several journalists and media houses also faced action as they were spreading misinformation during that period.
India ranks 150th in the world in press freedom, down from a shameful 140th, and proudly sports the world’s highest number of internet shutdowns, like the one punishing Punjab right now. This is tyranny, not democracy. pic.twitter.com/uUbiHp1cWg
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) March 22, 2023
In a reply to that post, she quoted a report on India’s press freedom ranking. The funny thing is, the press freedom ranking she was referring to was based on dubious data and old reports. OpIndia has a detailed report on it. One of the most bizarre points Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders), or RSF put in its report is about the money the government of India spends on advertisements. RSF claimed the central government is spending more than 130 billion rupees (Rs 13,000 crores) or 5 billion euros a year on ads in the print and online media alone.
OpIndia had filed an RTI seeking information on the ad spent by the central government on different platforms, including print, outdoor advertisements, social media, radio, and television. As per the reply sent by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India, the actual figures are nowhere close to what RSF has claimed.
According to the reply sent by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the central government spent only Rs 26.44 crore on television ads and only 1.33 crore on social media ads in the financial year 2022-23. Notably, ad spending has decreased significantly since the Modi government came to power in 2014. The maximum amount the government has spent on television ads was Rs 280.77 crores in FY 2016-17.
In November 2023, she again targeted the Indian government over baseless claims of “death squads” being sent to kill “North American Sikhs”.
In February 2021, quoting a report on the Indian government’s crackdown on social media platforms for ignoring orders to block fake reports and anti-India posts, Dhillon made shocking and completely baseless allegations that Sikh detainees were sexually assaulted and humiliated based on their religion during farmer protests.
Despite being an American politician who has no say in India’s internal affairs, she kept trying to meddle during farmer protests.
The controversy around Harmeet Dhillon’s Sikh prayer at RNC highlighted the intolerance embedded in the American society. However, before jumping in to defend her, Indians must be aware of her history of upporting controversial claims and figures, like Khalistani terrorists Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
