[DITN = Desis In The News]
Today's Sunday New York Times has a front-page story about 13-year-old Kunal Sah, whose parents to were deported to India after being denied a political asylum claim.
Kunal Sah, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, is an angry speller. He lives with his uncle and aunt at the Ramada Limited Motel in this tough former railroad town in eastern Utah. Kunal is making himself into a great speller by way of unhappiness and the immense pressure he feels to reunite his family, which was blown across two continents when his parents were sent back to India last year after being denied political asylum.
He said he cried every day after his parents left, then as the spelling bee season started and he began winning — ultimately reaching the regional competition and becoming one of
three students from Utah who will be going to Washington at the end of this month for the Scripps National Spelling Bee — he began to put his frustration into words. Capturing the spotlight at the bee, he said, could draw attention to his parents’ case.
Turns out his parents' case isn't the usual story of an innocent person escaping government persecution in some developing country. His father claims he was directly involved in anti-Muslim riots and therefore couldn't return to India.
[He] came to the United States in 1990 and shortly before his entry visa expired the next year he applied for political asylum, saying that if he was forced to return to his home province in southeastern India he would be targeted by Muslims because of his involvement in a group called Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which he described as committed to Hindu nationalism.
Mr. Sah acknowledged in his application that he had been active in organizing a campaign against Babri Mosque, in northern India, because it was “built on our sacred land” and that he “actively participated” in riots intended to demolish it.
In 1992, after Mr. Sah had immigrated to the United States, Hindu extremists destroyed the mosque.
In denying him haven, immigration officials noted that Mr. Sah “had participated in the persecution of non-Hindus and thus was ineligible for asylum.”
You can read the full story here, and see a five-minute video about Kunal Shah's story.
Here are some more items to read:
- Overlawyered.com post on the case.
- The court's verdict. Excerpt:"...the IJ noted that "India has approximately 800 million Hindus living there and [Sah] has not shown that he could not live in another area where it is more peaceful for people of his religion."
- SepiaMutiny post and comments from March 2007 about Sah's case (scroll down to #73 to see Kunal's response).
Certainly an unusual story. What do you think? Please post your comments below.
