(RNS) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a contentious bill Monday evening (Oct. 13) that had for months been the focus of Indian diaspora communities across the nation.
The bipartisan bill, known as SB 509, would have required the state’s Office of Emergency Services to develop training for the state’s law enforcement agencies to recognize and respond to transnational repression — the intimidation, surveillance or harassment of a foreign government’s dissidents within the state’s borders. The bill had passed unanimously through California’s Senate and Assembly before being rejected by the governor.
In his veto statement, Newsom said that the state has an existing Transnational Repression Class available to law enforcement and that the issue is “best addressed through administrative action in coordination with federal agencies.” Newsom said the bill was liable to make California less flexible in its response to the issue and might risk further inconsistencies with the federal government’s work on transnational repression.
The bill had starkly divided Sikh Americans from Hindu Americans, who see the bill as aimed at India, and Newsom’s veto further exacerbated the sometimes fraught relationship between the two minority faith groups.
The nation’s most prominent Sikh American organizations, including the Sikh Coalition and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, had championed the bill in the wake of several attempts by the Indian government to silence those who support the creation of an autonom …