California Governor Gavin Newsom Vetoes Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a landmark anti-caste discrimination bill recently passed by the state assembly, terming it "unnecessary" and underlining that laws to ban caste-based discrimination already exist in the US state.

The governor’s move has been welcomed by a large segment of the Indian-American community who were opposing the bill based on the same argument.

“In California, we believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who they are, where they come from, who they love, or where they live,” PTI report quoted Newscom as having said.

"That is why California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, colour, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed. Because discrimination based on caste is already prohibited under these existing categories, this bill is unnecessary," he said, the report said.

For this reason, Newsom asserted that he “cannot sign” the bill, known as ‘SB403’, which was recently passed by a large majority by both the House of Representatives and Senate of the California State Assembly, it mentioned.

California would have been the first US state to formally ban discrimination on the basis of caste if the Governor had signed the bill.

The bill was introduced in March by Democratic state Senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California Legislature.

The bill defines "ancestry" for purposes of the Fair Employment and Housing Act, the Unruh Act, and the Education Code to include "caste" and other dimensions of ancestry.

The opponents of the bill described it as historic and said that such a move by the Governor has prevented the efforts of many to target the South Asian community and the Hindus in the state.

Reacting to the development, Castefiles, an educational platform which challenges false caste and race narratives in media, described the move as a historic decision.

“Governor Newsom has taken a stance to veto SB403  - an attempt to sully the Civil Rights Act by adding discriminatory notes to it with the highly contentious term CASTE'. Newsom has recognised the pain and fight of the South Asian micro minority. Democracy wins today in America - the Vox populi that fought to be heard amidst the deafening roar of fake caste narratives,” it said.

Samir Kalra, managing director of the Hindu American Foundation, said, “With the stroke of his pen, Governor Newsom has averted a civil rights and constitutional disaster that would have put a target on hundreds of thousands of Californians simply because of their ethnicity or their religious identity, as well as create a slippery slope of facially discriminatory laws.”

Leading Democrat Ajay Bhutoria, in a statement, expressed his gratitude to Newsom for vetoing the bill and described it as a “momentous development”.

During a recent engagement at a Democratic National Committee (DNC) event in Chicago, Bhutoria from California and Rakesh Kapur from Boston urged the governor to veto the bill.

Vetoing the SB403 Caste Bill was the right course of action, elucidating the detrimental impacts it could have on the community, they told the governor in Chicago last month.

“This legislation was undeniably redundant and unnecessary, and I am pleased that our discussions in Chicago bore fruit. The veto of this bill is a testament to the power of constructive dialogue and collaboration," Bhutoria said in a statement.

“This is a culmination of the efforts of the entire #HinduAmerican community, and the hundreds of organisations, temples, businesses, and allies that fought against #profiling. We rose above the lies, the insinuations, and the wild accusations - and we prevailed,” Coalition of Hindus of North America said.

“It was an effort that saw hundreds of volunteers turn out in person, dozens of organisations, and thousands of California residents who wrote, called, and texted their lawmakers. Proof that if we unite and take action, nothing is impossible,” CoHNA said.

Khanderao Kand from the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora (FIIDS) thanked Newsom for “this historic and correct” decision.

“I reject all and any form of discrimination, however as the governor said California law already covers all discriminations, moreover, this bill would have caused facial and ethnic profiling leading to difficulty for industries, particularly the tech industry to operate,” he said.

The recently formed Americans for Hindus said the bill was not facially neutral.

“It relied on misleading narratives, strawman arguments, and a questionable survey that actively encouraged falsification of data,” it said, thanking the governor for vetoing the bill.

In a statement, Deelip Mhaske, president of the Foundation for Human Horizon and prominent Ambedkarite, said while the governor ideologically supported the bill, he was against anything that would further divide the Indian-American community or promote negative sentiments towards India.

“Consequently, he vetoed the bill, not because he opposed the legislation per se, but due to concerns over divisive groups hijacking the movement,” he said.

According to Mhaske, after the bill was passed by the California Assembly, several organisations supporting the bill initiated a hunger strike, prompting an investigation into the participants, especially Equality Lab.

“Concerns were raised that some groups were using the bill as a means to promote financial interests, as well as fostering divisive anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiments within the Indian community in America,” he said, welcoming the decision of the governor to veto the bill.

Vaishali V, president of the Ambedkar-Phule Network of American Dalits and Bahujans, congratulated Newsom for seeing through the flaws in the bill and how it would adversely impact people from South Asia, including the marginalised communities.

“As California's Governor has rightly pointed out, California's law on civil rights already covers all instances of discrimination. We believe that this bill was brought with the sole intention of stereotyping Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Muslims and other communities from South Asia,” he was quoted in the report as having said.