Emmy-nominated American journalist denied entry into India

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India has allegedly deported an American journalist of Indian origin who was travelling to the country to visit his family.

Angad Singh, a news producer for Vice News, was on his way to the northern Punjab state when he was stopped by immigration officials at national capital Delhi’s airport on Wednesday night.

Singh’s mother Gurmeet Kaur said in a statement on Facebook that her son was deported on the basis of his journalistic work as he has often been critical of the Indian government led by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Ms Kaur, who is a writer, began her statement by describing how she saw a Sikh boy around her age at the time, being “handcuffed and being taken away to be deported back to India”.

“My heart tore. I spoke to him from a distance - to comfort him. He said he didn’t know the reason. He was tired of sitting down in plane rides and all he wanted to do was to lay down - his back hurt so bad. I wished him Chardikala [positive attitude].

“Today, A generation later, my son an American citizen who travelled 18 hours to Delhi to visit us in Punjab was deported. Put in the next flight back to New York,” she further said.

She said officials did not provide a reason for sending him back to New York, but she believes it may be related to “his award winning journalism that scares them”.

Singh was nominated for an Emmy award for his coverage of India’s devastating second wave of the Covid pandemic last summer, when the Delta variant ravaged the country and crippled its largely public-funded medical infrastructure.

“It is the stories he did and the stories he is capable of. It is the love for his Motherland that they can’t stand. It is the cutting edge reporting of [Vice News] that gets to them,” Ms Kaur said.

“He is 6’5” tall. His back hurts from riding long rides in such small spaces. He must be wanting to lay down.

“It’s not easy to be a Sikh, a Gursikh on top, a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice.

“Speaking truth has a price. We must pay it,” she added.

Speaking to Indian Express, Singh’s family said he had landed at Delhi airport around 8.30pm on Wednesday and was deported to the US within three hours.

“Angad Singh covers South Asia. He had made a documentary on the Shaheen Bagh protest,” a family member told the newspaper, referring to the epicentre of widespread citizen protests against the Indian government’s Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019.

“The Government must be upset due to that documentary. His request for a visa as a journalist to make a documentary on Dalits in India was rejected recently. Now, he was coming for a family reunion and was on a personal visit. But he was sent back from the Delhi airport,” the family member added.

Singh visits Punjab often, according to his family, though he was born and brought up in the US.

Immigration authorities have not issued a statement on the incident yet.