Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was ‘offloaded’ from her London-bound flight at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on January 11. She was not informed of the reasons for the offloading by the Immigration officials except to state that her name was on a list issued by the Government of India – ‘Look Out Circular’.
It is being reported that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) submitted a report to the MHA on Tuesday on stopping Pillai from flying to London. According to sources, the IB had issued a ‘Look-Out Circular’ to Pillai on January 9, on grounds of “national interest”.
What possible reasons could the government have to take recourse to such drastic action towards an activist with no criminal background whatsoever and who was flying to London at the invitation of the British Parliament? On the other hand, we have seen politicians with murder charges against them happily touring the world and they don’t feature on the IB’s list. So here’s five reasons why we should support Priya Pillai.
1. Legal experts say that the entire procedure was illegal. The Intelligence Bureau has no authority to issue a circular like this. This kind of notice is only issued at the Court’s orders or the MHA’s, and that too for criminals who are wanted by the police and are absconding. And Priya Pillai has no criminal background whatsoever. So if Priya Pillai were to contest the legality of the IB’s notice in court, she’d very likely win, hands down.
2. This is not the first time that Greenpeace has figured on the IB’s list. Last year, in June 2014, the IB released a report citing that foreign-funded NGOs were impacting development progress in India. It labeled Greenpeace as ‘a threat to national economic security’ for its protests against nuclear power plants and coal mining. So in September the same year, Ben Hargreaves, a Greenpeace activist with a valid UK visa was denied entry into India. But like I mentioned above, politicians on the other hand, are not subjected to this kind of treatment. And human rights violators like Mahinda Rajapakse got a red carpet welcome. What gives?
3. Priya Pillai’s trip to London was a bonafide one, in fact even honorable; she was invited to speak in the British Parliament on the rights of forest communities being infringed upon for mining coal in India. She also had a valid business visa. It is being said that the primary reason for her being offloaded was her fight against the clearance given to Essar company’s coal mining projects in India that threaten the forests and livelihoods at Mahan in the Singrauli coal belt of Madhya Pradesh. Pillai was going to apprise the British Parliament on Essar’s activities in India. Was this a way to prevent her from doing so?
4. Development is crucial, yes. But targeting activists because they only want to protect the environment and communities which often gets uprooted in the face of development, is simply being devious and overbearing. Today the government has targeted well-meaning activists. Tomorrow it could be any other ordinary citizen whose activities may be perfectly legal, but get onto the IB’s list simply because they do not like it. Not cool!
5. If these are not good enough reasons, then read what poet Martin Niemoller has to say:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.
Image Courtesy: ANI
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