South Asians file online petition to revive MTV Desi

A group of prominent South Asians in the US is lobbying hard to bring MTV Desi back after it was pulled out from the network's line-up last month.

In a petition circulated online, the group said, "In announcing the pending elimination of your Asian-American division, MTV World (Desi, Chi and K), you have excluded a large segment of the American audience based on race and ethnicity. This action is particularly damaging in the way it affects and isolates Asian American youth."

MTV Desi that targets South Asians in North America as well as its sister channels MTV Chi for Chinese Americans and MTV K for Korean Americans were quietly closed last month, just 18 months after the hyped launch.

"Launching MTV Desi, Chi and K was a great and progressive initiative on MTV's part. A move like this by a major media network can be instrumental in instigating social change and sharing the Asian American experience within the mainstream American pop culture ... I strongly urge MTV to reconsider this decision," New York city council member John C. Liu said in a letter to MTV CEO Judy McGrath last week.

The online petition has been signed by more than 1,500 influential South Asians, including Senator Satveer Chaudhary of Minnesota, actors Aasif Mandvi and Madhur Jaffrey, Indo-American Arts Council executive director Aroon Shivdasani and Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan, dean of students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, according to India West, an ethnic Indian newspaper.