Protest The Denial Of Entry To David Barsamian
By Concerned Citizens
29 September, 2011
Countercurrents.org
We write to protest the denial of entry to David Barsamian by Immigration Authorities at the New Delhi airport in the early hours of September 23, 2011, and we write to draw attention to the growing arbitrariness of the Indian Government in dealing with dissent of any kind.
David Barsamian is a veteran broadcaster, and founder and director of Alternative Radio, a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the US, Canada, Europe and beyond. For more than 25 years Alternative Radio has provided information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored in other media. Structured around intensive interviews conducted by David Barsamian, these programs are carried by over 125 radio stations and heard by millions of listeners. He is the author of numerous books with Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and Tariq Ali.
David is a friend for many of us, but he is an older friend of India. He first came as a young man in 1966, and has since returned innumerable times, immersing himself in its music, languages and poetry. He has taught himself Urdu and Hindi, learned to play the Sitar, and closely follows events in the sub-continent.
When he was deported on September 23 he had a visa which was valid for another 5 years, and although he last visited in February 2011, he had no intimation or warning that he was in violation of any of the conditions under which his visa was issued. The only thing that the Immigration Officers were able to tell him was that he was “banned” from entering the country, and that the reasons were a “secret”.
The deportation of David Barsamian unfortunately mirrors the manner in which Prof Richard Shapiro was arbitrarily stopped from entering India in November 2010. We are dismayed that this power to send people back from the airport is slowly becoming a weapon, used to discipline and silence people who draw any kind of attention to uncomfortable truths about India. A year later Prof Shapiro still has no formal response on why he was stopped, and when he can regain his right to travel to India, where he has family.
We therefore ask that the ban on David Barsamian and others like Richard Shapiro be revoked, and the Government of India not impede their return to India.
We demand that the right to travel and the right to free exchange of ideas between scholars, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders be respected and protected, and that government agents not authorize the denial of entry and eviction of visitors to India, or monitor their movement. Free exchange of ideas is one of the most basic human rights and values in free democratic societies. Freedom of travel is one of the most important avenues for furthering such exchange among peoples. Recognizing this, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India has ratified, protects freedom of expression, right to travel and scientific exchange.
Signed:
1 Amar Kanwar, Film-maker
2 Amit Bhaduri, Academic
3 Amit Sengupta, Journalist
4 Anuradha Chenoy, Academic
5 Ania Loomba, Academic
6 Angana Chatterji, Academic
7 Aruna Roy, MKSS, Activist
8 Arundhati Roy, Writer
9 Ashok Prasad, Academic
10 Ajay Skaria, Academic
11 Basharat Peer, Writer
12 Dibyesh Anand, Academic
13 Harsh Dobhal, Journalist
14 Jean Dreze, Scholar
15 Joel Geier, International Socialist Review
16 Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Academic
17 Kamala Visveswaran, Academic
18 Lalitha Gopalan, Academic
19 Manisha Sethi, Academic
20 Mirza Waheed, Writer
21 Najeeb Mubarki, Journalist
22 N Raghuram, Academic
23 Mridu Rai, Academic
24 Nagesh Rao, Academic
25 Pankaj Mishra, Writer
26 Parvaiz Bukhari, Journalist
27 Philip Gasper, Academic
28 Prashant Bhushan, Lawyer
29 Rahul Roy, Film-maker
30 Sanjay Kak, Film-maker
31 Satya Sivaraman, Journalist
32 Suresh Nautiyal, Journalist
33 Simona Sawhney, Academic
34 Shripad Dharmadhikary, Researcher
35 Shohini Ghosh, Academic
36 Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Artist
37 Sukumar Muralidharan, Journalist
38 Suvir Kaul, Academic
39 Saba Dewan, Film-maker
40 Snehal Shingavi, Academic
41 Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Review
42 Vandana Shiva, Academic
43 Vrinda Grover, Lawyer
Comments are not moderated. Please be responsible and civil in your postings and stay within the topic discussed in the article too. If you find inappropriate comments, just Flag (Report) them and they will move into moderation que.