As Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, a proud Sikh and ac­com­plished lawyer, steps into her role as As­sis­tant At­tor­ney Gen­eral for Civil Rights, the Sikh com­mu­nity world­wide an­tic­i­pates her com­mit­ment to jus­tice and equal­ity. Ap­pointed by the US Pres­i­dent-des­ig­nate Don­ald J. Trump, she is per­haps a few of the Sikh faces in the 4000 staff that the Pres­i­dent of the United States be­fore tran­si­tion of power. In this open let­ter, The World Sikh News ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh high­lights the ex­pec­ta­tions from her to up­hold the prin­ci­ples of “Sar­bat da Bhala” and cham­pion civil lib­er­ties for all.

DEAR HARMEET KAUR JI, Greet­ings from home­land Pun­jab! Hearti­est con­grat­u­la­tions on your nom­i­na­tion as As­sis­tant At­tor­ney Gen­eral for Civil Rights! This is a mo­ment of im­mense pride for the Sikh com­mu­nity world­wide. Your jour­ney from Chandi­garh to the cor­ri­dors of Amer­i­can jus­tice is in­spir­ing and a tes­ta­ment to re­silience and com­mit­ment. Your le­gal work speak vol­umes for your hard work, dili­gence and fo­cus.

While your nom­i­na­tion is a po­lit­i­cal mile­stone, we are hope­ful that your role will  tran­scend pol­i­tics for the com­mon good.  I learn that you are deeply rooted as a Sikh into the Sikh prin­ci­ples of equal­ity, jus­tice, and “Sar­bat da Bhala”—the well-be­ing of all. These val­ues res­onate deeply with the essence of civil rights, which de­mand fair­ness and dig­nity for all com­mu­ni­ties.

As you pre­pare to serve, we urge you to chan­nel the Sikh ethos of uni­ver­sal jus­tice and in­clu­siv­ity. Your ac­tions will be watched with ad­mi­ra­tion and per­haps some scrutiny too, as your faith and role uniquely po­si­tion you to leave a last­ing im­pact.

The Sikh com­mu­nity in the United States and be­yond looks to you with hope and ex­pec­ta­tion. In an era where civil lib­er­ties of­ten face chal­lenges, your po­si­tion will be piv­otal in en­sur­ing the rights of all—re­gard­less of race, faith, or ide­ol­ogy—are up­held with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion.

Your ca­reer path makes in­ter­est­ing and in­spir­ing read­ing. Hav­ing served on the ed­i­to­r­ial board of the Vir­ginia Law Re­view of Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia School of Law from where you re­ceived your law de­gree, your own law prac­tice, started in 2006, with fo­cus on com­mer­cial lit­i­ga­tion, em­ploy­ment law, and First Amend­ment rights, then serv­ing as vice-chair­woman of the Cal­i­for­nia Re­pub­li­can Party and a mem­ber of the Re­pub­li­can Na­tional Com­mit­tee, you are cer­tainly go­ing to make long strides in the cor­ri­dors of courts as your party faces an up­hill task on the do­mes­tic front, es­pe­cially with the loom­ing fears of the new im­mi­gra­tion laws pro­posed by your party.

Your leader and Pres­i­dent-des­ig­nate Don­ald J. Trump’s com­men­da­tion of your work shows his stead­fast faith in you. “Harmeet has stood up con­sis­tently to pro­tect our cher­ished civil lib­er­ties.  Harmeet will be a tire­less de­fender of our con­sti­tu­tional rights, and will en­force our civil rights and elec­tion laws fairly and firmly.

Recit­ing Gur­bani and in­vok­ing the bless­ings of God through re­peat­ing the lines “Nanak Naam Chardikala, Tere Bhane Sar­bat da Bhala” at the Re­pub­lic Con­ven­tion in July 2024 was a re­mark­able ges­ture at a po­lit­i­cal meet.

I am sure that you are aware that the In­dian me­dia has gone agog in pro­ject­ing you as a sym­pa­thizer of dis­sent­ing Sikh voices, par­tic­u­larly be­cause of your rais­ing voice against the killers of Sikh ac­tivist Hard­eep Singh Ni­j­jar and call to book those who at­tempted to mur­der a Sikh ac­tivist in the United States. I am sure that this will not de­ter you from call­ing a spade a spade.

As you pre­pare to serve, we urge you to chan­nel the Sikh ethos of uni­ver­sal jus­tice and in­clu­siv­ity. Your ac­tions will be watched with ad­mi­ra­tion and per­haps some scrutiny too, as your faith and role uniquely po­si­tion you to leave a last­ing im­pact.

We trust you will ho­n­our this re­spon­si­bil­ity with the in­tegrity and courage that de­fine the Sikh spirit. Wish­ing you suc­cess and wis­dom in your new role. May Akal Pu­rakh guide you to serve with fair­ness and com­pas­sion.

Jag­mo­han Singh
Ed­i­tor, The World Sikh News