Radical Desi is delighted to announce that it has presented Life Time Achievement Award to David Barsamian – a US based journalist for giving voice through alternative media to the oppressed communities and those fighting against repression at an event held at SFU Harbour Center on Friday evening.
Those who presented the award to Barsamian included Chinmoy Banerjee, Parshotam Dosanjh and Gurpreet Singh, all founders of Radical Desi publications that covers alternative politics.

The Indian government continues to deny visa to seventy-two-year-old Barsamian for the past seven years. He was forced to return from Delhi Airport by the world’s so called largest democracy in 2011. His only fault is that he has been writing against the repression of Adivasis or the indigenous peoples of India and also the people of Kashmir.

Barsamian had recently appealed to the Indian Foreign Affairs’ Minister Shushma Swaraj to let him visit India to see his ailing guru. Though Swaraj is known for promptly responding to the people who approach her through social media, Barsamian’s appeal has gone unheeded.

Barsamian was here on the invitation of South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) to give a presentation on the emergence of right wing leaders like Modi and Trump. The event began with a moment of silence for Gauri Lankesh who was recently murdered in India. Like Barsamina, Lankesh was also a courageous journalist who was a vocal critic of the Hindu Right.