A Metro Vancouver-based online magazine organized a demonstration to draw global attention to the ongoing suppression of press freedom in the world’s so-called largest democracy, in Surrey on Wednesday, May 3.  

Radical Desi had given the call for a protest rally outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center on World Press Freedom Day.  

The event was started with homage to the slain Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was allegedly assassinated in 2017 by supporters of the ruling right wing Hindu nationalist BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.  

A prominent progressive Punjabi writer, Amrit Diwana, recited a poem dedicated to her. Slogans asking for justice to Lankesh were also raised on the occasion.  

Attacks on religious minorities and political critics, including journalists and activists, have grown under the BJP rule since 2014.  

The speakers unanimously held that the constant assaults on independent media in India cannot be delinked from the broader issue of human rights which are being trampled with impunity. They agreed that the space for free expression continues to shrink under Modi, which should alarm the international community.  

Among those who addressed the gathering were BC Federation of Labour Secretary Treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley, prominent Sikh activists Barjinder Singh and Kesar Singh Baghi, Dalit activist Rashpal Bhardawaj, renowned media personality Gurvinder Singh Dhaliwal and Radical Desi cofounder Gurpreet Singh.   

The participants included another BC Federation of Labour member, Kassandra Felicia Martinez Cordero, Sikh activist Kuljinder Singh Gill and Ambedkarite activist Joginder Banger.