An online magazine that covers alternative politics has picked the slain President of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Surrey-Delta as this year’s newsmaker.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was a leader of the movement for Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland to be carved out of northern India, was assassinated on June 18, 2023. The Canadian government believes that Indian agencies could be involved in the high profile murder, as the US authorities uncovered a plot to kill his colleague Gurpatwant Singh Pannu.

Nijjar feared an attempt on his life, as the Indian government tried to get him extradited on charges of terrorism that were never proved in any court of law. The pro-establishment media in New Delhi had slandered him multiple times, though he was known as a soft-spoken and hardworking member of the Sikh community in BC. He had organized special prayers for the Indigenous kids whose remains were discovered on the sites of former residential schools and always spoke out for the human rights of everyone, including non-Sikhs, for which Radical Desi had presented him with a medal.

Nijjar's death became a catalyst for breaking the global silence on growing repression of minorities and political dissidents under the right wing Hindu nationalist government in India, and forced Canada to look into growing foreign interference into its internal affairs by the world’s so-called largest democracy.