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‘Singh doesn’t know how to drive’: US Homeland Security gets flak for ‘anti-Indian’ post

How outlets told it

A social media post by the United States’ Department of Homeland Security that said “Mr Singh does not know how to drive” drew flak online, with politicians and Indian diaspora groups criticising it for being racist.

The post on social media platform X on Wednesday had an artificial intelligence-generated poster featuring Transformers character Optimus Prime and a brown man staring at each other. “Self-deport or find out”, read the image.

“America for Americans,” the poster said. “Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr Singh.”

The appearance of the man in the image was similar to that of an Indian-origin truck driver arrested in Florida in August 2025 for a crash that killed three persons.

The post had been viewed more than 4.2 million times as of 12 noon Indian time on Thursday, with more than a thousand reposts. It was posted as a reply to a video by the department itself urging people to report allegedly undocumented migrants living in the US.

The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that between 1,30,000 to 1,50,000 drivers from Punjab and Haryana are employed in the trucking sector in the United States.

‘Xenophobia dressed up as public policy’

The post was criticised by politicians in India and the US and Indian diaspora groups.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said that the US...