The country didn't want its official narrative on the state to be questioned: Barsamian
The country didn't want its official narrative on the state to be questioned: Barsamian
He had to travel to Srinagar on 26 September to do a story on the State Human Rights Commission's report on unmarked graves
Riyaz Wani
Srinagar
Deported American radio broadcaster David Barsamian has said that India denied him entry because of his views on Kashmir. Barsamian was deported from New Delhi airport and put back on the return plane to the United States on Friday. He said that Kashmir was, "at the heart of India's concerns and the country didn't want its official narrative on the state to be questioned". "It's all about Kashmir," Barsamian said in an email to TEHELKA from the US. "I've done work on Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Narmada dam, farmer suicides, Gujarat pogrom, and the Binayak Sen case. But it's Kashmir that is at the heart of the Indian state's concerns. The official narrative must not be contested".
He further wrote that he was happy that he escaped without being tortured. "I have my fingernails, no welts on my back, no electric shock. I am safe and sound unlike some in the world's largest democracy," Barsamian said. Barsamian who is known for his independent views on American foreign policy and is the director of Alternative Radio, a Colorado-based syndicated weekly talk program heard on some 125 radio stations in various countries said he is "sad and furious" for being turned back from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
He is also known for his interview-based books on Noam Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmad, Edward Said, Howard Zinn and others. It were his recent forays in Kashmir that became a source of unease for the central government which apparently didn't want him to visit the state at a time when situation here was peaceful. This time round, Barsamian had to travel to Srinagar on 26 September to do a story on the State Human Rights Commission's report on unmarked graves. "He was scheduled to do interviews with the families of the disappeared persons and also take a look at the overall human rights situation in the state," Khurram Parvez, coordinator of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), told TEHELKA.
During his past two visits to Kashmir – in 2007 and 2011 – Barsamian alienated the establishment by siding with the separatist resistance, even urging people to "persevere" in their struggle. He also did interviews with the people to highlight the situation in the state. In an interview he gave himself, Barsamian drew a parallel between the uprisings in Kashmir over the past three years and the revolution in Egypt. "In a way what happened over the last three summers (in Kashmir) was similar to Tahrir Square in Egypt over and over again, but without a neutral army, with a security force that was actually not showing restraint and was shooting into the crowds and so on," Barsamian said. "So what we saw is a sentiment for freedom, which keeps expressing itself in different ways".
Barsamian is also known for his critique of US war on terror, challenging in the process the prevalent understanding of terrorism. "What is terrorism? What do you call these bombings, these drone attacks on Pakistan, when they hit a wedding party, a madarsa, a Masjid or people's homes, a school, what is that? That's State terror. But when the State does it, it becomes defence. If you have a small group of people who blow up a bus, that's terrorism," he said in an interview.
Barsamian is the second US citizen to be deported from New Delhi airport in the past ten months. In November 2010 US academic Professor Richard Shapiro was denied entry by immigration authorities in New Delhi. Shapiro is chairman and associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. He is married to Angana Chatterji, co-convener of International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir. In May this year, J-K government deported human rights activist Gautum Navlakha from Srinagar airport.
Barsamian's tryst with India goes back long. He first arrived in India in 1966. His association with sitar maestro Debu Maharaj, who also teaches him, deepened his bond with the country.
Riyaz Wani is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.
riyaz@tehelka.com
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