An Indian truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that resulted in the deaths of three people in Florida on August 12 has sparked online racist attacks on Indian truckers and a clash between Republicans and Democrats in the United States over immigration policies.

Back in the subcontinent, some social-media users disowned the Sikh driver, claiming he was not Indian but “Khalistani”.

Harjinder Singh has been charged with vehicular homicide and immigration violations. When the 28-year-old asylum seeker from Punjab in India made the illegal turn on a highway in Florida, a minivan in the neighboring lane slammed into his truck. The driver of the van and two passengers died.

Singh was flagged as an illegal immigrant by an official White House social media account. “This individual is an illegal immigrant who was granted a commercial driver’s license by the State of California – and now, three innocent people are dead,” the tweet said.

The White House tweet about Singh became immediate ammunition for Republicans against California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely considered a 2028 Democratic presidential contender.

The Trump administration used Singh’s California-issued commercial driver’s licence to criticise the state’s policies that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain licences.

Prominent Trump supporter Charlie Kirk called for California to be stripped of federal funding.

“Deport him [Singh] to CECOT [a maximum security prison in El Salvador] for life,” Kirk said in a social media post. “And then strip California of every federal dollar for as long as it takes. Rogue states must not be allowed to continue shielding, coddling, and licensing illegals.”

The case triggered a wave of racist rhetoric against Indian truckers. Around 150,000 truckers in the United States belong to the Sikh community, The Economist reported in 2019.

Some US social media users demanded bans on all Indian truckers. For instance, an X account by the name of David Santa Carla, with over 100,000 followers, tweeted a video of another traffic incident with the message, “America needs to discuss Indian truck drivers.”

Some Indian social media accounts, meanwhile, disowned Singh and claimed he was “Khalistani”, not Indian.

Singh had reportedly attended events organised by Sikhs for Justice, a group that advocates for Khalistan, an independent Sikh state carved from India. India has asked the US to designate the group as a terrorist organisation.

Arjun Sethi, a human rights attorney and a professor of law at Georgetown University, said that Singh’s case places unfair pressure on the Sikh community.

“It’s an unfortunate reality that in the post-9/11 era, marginalised and diverse communities in America are always expected to speak on behalf of everyone in their community,” Sethi said. “Harjinder Singh, an individual from the Sikh community, was involved in an unfortunate, fatal accident, and yet somehow, the entire Sikh community, in some ways, feels on trial.”

Sethi pointed out that Singh has not been charged with any crimes related to his political activities.

“Harjinder Singh, like anyone else in the United States, is entitled to free speech, the right to protest, the right to organise, the right to associate,” he said. “He’s not been arrested or on trial for those charges, and any focus on those charges is a distraction and an attempt to undermine his due process and a further example of the weaponisation of this case against Sikh Americans at large.”

Widening rifts

Singh’s case has also widened the rift between some Hindu and Sikh groups in the US.

The general counsel of Sikhs for Justice is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who, the US Department of Justice alleged last October, was the target of a foiled assassination attempt by an Indian government employee.

On Thursday, Pannun held a press conference outside the jail in Florida where Harjinder Singh is being jailed to announce that Sikhs for Justice would donate $100,000 to the families of the victims. He said Singh’s case was a “tragic misjudgment and not an intentional or malicious act”.

Pannun went on to describe Singh as “a Sikh hailing from Indian occupied Punjab” who had “fled Modi government’s persecution which is increasingly targeting pro Khalistan Sikhs in India and even in USA”.

The Hindu American Foundation, one of the largest Hindu advocacy groups in the US, criticised Sikhs for Justice in a social media post.

“When the focus must be on the victims of this enormous tragedy, we believe that Sikhs for Justice – that previously launched threats at staff at HAF – exploiting this moment for Khalistan propaganda and pointing fingers at India and Indians is the last thing the deceased’ s families or the driver of the truck needs,” it said.

The Hindu American Foundation has been a vocal opponent of a bill introduced in California to address transnational repression by foreign governments.

The bill was moved after the US Department of Justice alleged that the Indian government employee had attempted to assassinate Pannun. It came a year after the murder of pro-Khalistan organiser, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen whose killers, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged, had links to the Indian government.

Meanwhile, as a consequence to the deaths caused by Harjinder Singh, the Trump administration last week announced policy changes aimed at immigrant truck drivers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there would be a pause on work visas for foreign commercial truck drivers, declaring that “foreign truck drivers” are “endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers”.

The administration also threatened to withhold federal funding from states that do not comply with English language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers.

The Sikh Coalition, an influential American Sikh organisation, said it supports common-sense safety measures such as English language proficiency requirements for drivers but had reservations about the move.

“…We also want to ensure that such rules are not used as a pretext for racial or national origin profiling of drivers who may be stereotyped for their appearance, including Sikh and Punjabi individuals,” the coalition stated.

‘Not a deliberate act’

Amidst the controversies, an online petition started by a woman from Adelaide, Australia, calling for “fair sentencing” for Singh has gathered over 3.1 million signatures.

“This was a tragic accident – not a deliberate act,” the petition says. “While accountability matters, the severity of the charges against him does not align with the circumstances of the incident.”

Back in India, Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal made a video asking Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to take the case up with his American counterparts.

This sparked a backlash online. Some social media users accused Kaur of politicising the accident. Others claimed she was privileging identity politics over justice.

“Citizenship is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card,” said one person on X. “If you choose another country as home, you also choose its laws. Breaking them & then expecting India to shield you isn’t patriotism – it’s hypocrisy.”

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