Indian-American Sikh Lawyer Attacked by Republican Colleagues Over her Faith

Harmeet Dhillon, a Sikh lawyer in the US who is running for the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman position has claimed her Republican colleagues are attacking her over her Sikh faith. She asserted that she will not give up and continue to fight for the position along with her team.

Dhillon, a former California Republican Party Co-Chair, is now campaigning for the RNC chairwoman position against Ronna McDaniel. She was reportedly attacked by her fellow party leaders over her Sikh faith. In her response on Twitter, Dhillon said, “To be very clear, no amount of threats to me or my team, or bigoted attacks on my faith traceable directly to associates of the chair, will deter me from advancing positive change at the RNC, which includes new standards of accountability, transparency, integrity, and decency.”

Threats incoming today. One of Ronna's state chair supporters responded to my message about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy by threatening me with consequences if I didn't make the "annoying" text messages from voters stop (no one on my team has asked anyone to text members)/

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) January 17, 2023

Talking about the threats, Dhillon stated that one of Ronna’s state chair supporters responded to her message about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and threatened her with some consequences if she did not make the “annoying” text messages from voters stop. She added that no one from her team asked anyone to text members.

She also posted on Twitter, “Another person on my team got a threatening call from a $$$ RNC consultant for raising questions about RNC’s highest-paid vendors. The message delivered was that my supporter would never work on a certain presidential campaign or for RNC if they didn’t shut up.”

Last week, it was reported that opponents have raised concerns over Dhillon’s Sikh faith. She reportedly told a newspaper that some RNC members have questioned her fitness to run the RNC because of her devout Sikh faith. McDaniel, on the other hand, denied these allegations and said, “We are the party of faith, family, and freedom, and these attacks have no place in our party or our politics.” She added that being from a minority faith herself, she would never condone such attacks.

Vineet Washington