India’s former Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing and current Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal appealed to External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar as the Florida Turnpike continues to be politicised after Indian trucker Harjinder Singh‘s alleged illegal U-turn in St Lucie County led to three deaths.

In a self-filmed video message, the senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader directly turned to Jaishankar to intervene in the Indian-origin Sikh truck driver’s case “to ensure his rights, including that to wear a ‘dastar’ (Sikh turban), are protected & he is not persecuted as a murderer.” Although she did her bit to condemn the 28-year-old Indian trucker’s “grave mistake” in the US, she went on to reject him being branded as a murderer.

“Harjinder committed a grave mistake which led to a fatal crash but he is not a murderer & should not be treated as such,” she wrote in the video post’s caption, shared on Monday, August 25, evening (IST).

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Harjinder Singh case: Why is the Indian truck driver in the news?

The 28-year-old native of India was recently arrested in the Californian city Stockton and extradited back to Florida after his alleged illegal U-turn through an “Official Use Only” access point in St Lucie County resulted in a fatal crash. A minivan carrying three passengers slammed into the 18-wheeler, claiming all those innocent lives in the process. Meanwhile, Harjinder, who, according to the video of the crash obtained by Breaking911, was behind the wheel, with his brother, Harneet Singh, as the other sole passenger of the trailer truck.

Authorities have since revealed that both Singh brothers came into the US illegally, with Harjinder even acquiring a Commercial Driver’s License in the state of California despite his unauthorised status. The Department of Homeland Security further disclosed that the Indian truck driver failed an English Proficiency assessment, and remain unsuccessful in identifying 3 of 4 highway traffic signs during the test.

Work visa for foreign truck drivers, including Indians, in focus

Multiple petitions have since arisen, both in support of and against Harjinder Singh given the severity of his alleged actions on August 12 (US time). Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s video message and firmly worded tweet then comes shortly after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that work visa issuance would be paused for certain foreign truck drivers in light of their increasing numbers in the US “operating large tractor-trailer trucks,” thereby “endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”

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Considering the current status of the work visa crackdown following Singh’s involvement in the Florida crash, the Bathinda MP wrote, “More than 1.5 lakh Punjabi truck drivers in the US shud not be discriminated against due to Harjinder’s mistake.” Moreover, she argued that the 28-year-old Indian national’s blunder must not “snatch” the livelihoods of other Indians “by denying them work visas & making it more difficult for them to drive trucks by bringing in new language proficiency rules.”