Singh works as a documentary producer for a US-based website Vice News, whose focus is on Asia. he had come to visit his family Punjab but was put on the next flight back to New York,
No reason was given by the authorities for deporting Singh, claimed his mother Gurmeet Kaur, a writer who has worked to revive Punjabi folk tales and wrote a book on the late Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist.
“My son, a US citizen, who traveled for 18 hours to Delhi to meet us in Punjab, was deported. Put on the next flight back to New York. He didn’t give any reason. But we know it’s his award-winning journalism that scares him. The stories he did and the stories he is capable of,” she wrote on her Facebook wall alongside a picture of her son.
Singh has made critical films on right-wing politics. One of his documentary, titled ‘India’s Covid Hell’, was about the issues and management of the pandemic.
Kaur further wrote: “It is the love for their motherland that they cannot afford. It’s the cutting edge reporting of #ViceNews that gets them. He is 6’5” tall. His back hurts due to long rides in such small places. He would like to lie down. I wish you Chardi Art (Stay in good spirits) my boys.”
“It is not easy being a Sikh, a Gursikh at the top, a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice. Telling the truth has a price. We have to pay for this. I’m giving your back a rest. See you in the land of the free,” said Kaur in her post.
In her Facebook post, Kaur recalled a similar incident she had witnessed years ago. “When I first flew to the US – a Panam flight from Bombay to New York – I saw a Sikh boy of my age (I was 22 at the time) handcuffed and taken to deportation to India. Was leaving. My heart broke. I spoke to him from a distance to console him. He said he didn’t know the reason. He was tired of sitting on the plane and all he wanted to do was lie down Jaaye – his back hurts so much. I wish him a happy Chardi Kala,” she wrote.