Singh works as a documentary producer for the US website Vice News, which focuses on Asia. He had arrived to meet his family in Punjab, but was put on the next flight to New York.
No reason was given by authorities for Singh’s deportation, said his mother Gurmeet Kaur, a writer who worked to revive Punjabi folk tales and wrote a book about the late Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist.
“My son, an American citizen who traveled 18 hours to Delhi to visit us in Punjab, was deported. Put on the next flight to New York. They didn’t give a reason. But we know it’s his award-winning journalism that scares them. They are the stories he has made and the stories he is capable of, “he wrote on his Facebook wall with a photo of his son.
Singh has made critical films on right-wing politics. One of his documentaries, entitled “India’s Covid Hell”, was about the problems and handling of the pandemic.
Kaur also wrote: “It is the love for his homeland that they cannot bear. It is the cutting-edge reportage from #ViceNews that reaches them. He is 6’5 inches tall. His back hurts from taking long rides in such small spaces. He must want to lie down. I wish you Chardi Kalà (stay in a good mood) my boy.
“It is not easy to be a Sikh, a Gursikh in the lead, a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice. Telling the truth has a price. We have to pay for it. I’m comforting your back. See you in the land of the free, “Kaur said in his post.
In his FB post, Kaur recalled a similar incident he witnessed years ago. “When I first flew to America – PanAm flight from Bombay to New York – I saw a Sikh boy my age (I was 22 at the time) handcuffed and taken away to be deported to India. My heart was torn. I spoke to him from afar to comfort him. He said he didn’t know why. He was tired of sitting on the plane and all he wanted to do was lie down: his back hurt so much. I wanted him Chardi Kala “, he wrote him.
