The Vancouver-based online magazine that covers alternative politics has picked a well-known human rights defender as Person of the Year 2022.  

The late Ajit Singh Bains passed away on February 11, leaving behind a rich legacy of tireless work for social justice.  

He would have turned 100 on May 14 this year.  

Close to his birth centenary, Radical Desi announced that he would be its Person of the Year for his dedication to the cause of human rights.  

Bains, a retired judge, had stood for the people of Punjab who witnessed gross human rights abuses by the police and paramilitary forces during a decade-long insurgency by Sikh militants seeking a separate homeland between 1980s-1990s.  

He had advocated for the release of innocent civilians detained in the name of the so-called war on terror. and had investigated and documented cases of extra-judicial killings and other forms of state sponsored violence. For doing so, he was also detained by the authorities to instill fear in the minds of human rights activists.