Govt will continue to oppose Greenpeace activist’s “badmouthing” India

New Delhi

A Greenpeace activist, who was offloaded from a London-bound flight recently, will continue to face the ban on her foreign travel if she plans to “badmouth” India abroad by raising domestic issues.

Priya Pillai, who was on January 11 offloaded from a flight to London at the IGI airport here, will not be allowed to make deposition before foreign governments and agencies as such presentations are often allegedly used against India in international trade negotiations, a Home Ministry official said.

“No one will be allowed to appear before foreign governments and agencies badmouthing India, which ultimately brings trouble for the government in international fora.”

“However, Pillai will be allowed to travel abroad if she intends to go for other purposes like for tourism,” a Home Ministry official said.

Explaining the reasons behind the decision to offload Pillai from flight, the official said she was allegedly supposed to make her presentation before some British MPs on India’s environmental issues.

“Individual testimony has great value globally. Many foreign governments and agencies prepare report on such testimony and distribute them among European nations and share it even with the US and other developed countries. Very often, all such testimonies are used against India in international trade negotiations, which we cannot allow to continue,” the official said.

Submission before British MPs is akin to deposition before the United Kingdom government. It is beyond someone’s comprehension how can a foreign government solve India’s domestic problems, the official said.

Pillai and other NGOs activists have enough avenues in India to raise their grievances. They can also approach courts if they find anything irregular in environmental issues. But testimony before foreign nations on India’s domestic issues cannot be allowed, he said.

The Home Ministry is submitting all these along with a set of documents about activities of Pillai and her NGO Greenpeace before the Delhi High Court which is hearing a case in this regard.

In the last hearing, the court had termed Pillai not being allowed to visit London as inappropriate, saying the government has to draw a line to distinguish between “nationalism and jingoism”.

Pillai has reportedly sought permission again to visit the British capital to make a presentation before British MPs on alleged human rights violation at Mahan in Madhya Pradesh.

The government has already told the court that Pillai’s visit to London was “a serious threat to the nation and the speech she is going to make there is against the nation. The travel tickets financed in her name were from an organisation which is on the watch list of the Home Ministry”.

She has contended that not allowing her to travel to London was “completely unlawful and malafide and without any authority of law” and demanded quashing of the alleged ‘Look Out Circular’ against her.

37-year-old Pillai in her petition has said that she has challenged her “offloading” and the ‘Look Out Circular’ issued on her, which had resulted in the stamping of “offload” on her passport by the immigration officials.

The court will again hear the case on February 18.

© Copyright PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of any PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.