The ‘offloading’ of Greenpeace campaigner Priya Pillai at Delhi airport recently is disturbing. Greenpeace is not a banned organisation; it is legally allowed to operate in India. Pillai, who has no known criminal record, says that when she was stopped from boarding a flight to London, the authorities offered no substantive reasons for doing so. She was scheduled to brief a group of British parliamentarians on the rights of forest-dwelling communities affected by coal mining. The authorities have said, reportedly, that there was a Look Out Notice issued against Pillai, but the activist says she was yet to get one, and the government is trying to deviate from the core issue.

Pillai has been campaigning with local communities in Mahan, Madhya Pradesh, where a proposed coal mining project by London-headquartered Essar faces stiff resistance from tribal communities. Interestingly, it is learnt that Pillai’s name features in a government list of individuals denied permission to travel overseas.

Juxtapose this incident against an Intelligence Bureau report released last June, and the drift becomes clear: All those supposedly against ‘development’ are considered anti-national. The report said foreign-funded non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace, Cordaid, Amnesty and ActionAid were tools for foreign policy interests of western governments, sponsoring agitations against nuclear and coal-fired power plants across India. Woven into this theory is a communal subtext directed at the church. If Greenpeace or any other environment groups are truly acting against the national interest, the government is justified in taking legal action. But without sufficient ground, it should accept the right to peaceful dissent. Ironically, the Prime Minister was busy showcasing India’s ‘democracy’ advantage at the Vibrant Gujarat summit.

Jinoy Jose P, Assistant Editor

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