Greenpeace India campaigner prevented from travelling to the UK

A Greenpeace campaigner has been stopped by Indian officials from travelling to the UK to talk to MPs about the impact of a coal mine on a village in central India. The Indian national, Priya Pillai, was prevented from boarding a flight from New Delhi to London on Sunday, and given no reason by immigration officials who stamped her passport “offload”. Pillai has campaigned against a mine which Greenpeace says would affect thousands of villagers in and around Mahan forest area in Madhya Pradesh. She says she has no criminal record. Greenpeace said she had a valid visa to enter the UK. “When the world is supporting freedom of speech, why am I being stopped from sharing the situation in Mahan on an international stage?” asked Pillai. The Indian government hasn’t made any official comment on the restriction on her travel, but Indian media reported that the campaigner had been placed on a government ‘lookout’ circular, a list of absconding criminals. “She was to talk about the campaign of a blacklisted organisation, which was not seen as appropriate,” an unnamed intelligence official told the Times of India. “A lookout circular was issued against her making it mandatory for immigration authorities to restrain her from boarding the flight to UK.” The Narendra Modi administration has cracked down on Greenpeace India over its coal campaigns, closing off foreign funding transfers to the charity, although a court later ordered the government to lift the block. India is the world’s third biggest user and producer of coal. Pillai told the Guardian: “I wanted to come to London to tell British MPs about what I’ve witnessed in Mahan. A community of 50,000 people has been fighting this London-based company, Essar Energy, trying to save their forest home. Essar just wants to bulldoze the forest and replace it with a coal mine. “It’s a classic David and Goliath fight, Indian villagers facing down billionaires as their rights are trampled on. The Indian government, the fossil fuel giants, the police – so many powerful interests are against them, but the people are standing with those villagers, and they can win this.” The Mahan coal mine plan is a joint project between London-listed Essar Energy and Hindalco Industries Ltd which campaigners say would see the clearing of large parts of centuries-old forest that covers 385 square miles. The Mahan Coal Ltd project was given the green light by the environment minister last February, having previously been halted by concerns over its environmental impact. Greenpeace India executive director Samit Aich said: “It doesn’t matter if you love Greenpeace or hate us, Indians know this is not how the world’s biggest democracy should order its affairs. Those British MPs who hoped to hear Priya speak will wonder what on earth has happened here. This affair will embarrass India on the global stage.” Virendra Sharma MP, chair of Indo-British All Party Parliamentary group that Pillai was due to address, said: “The alleged detention of Priya Pillai is a worrying development. Priya had been invited to address our ‘All Party Parliamentary Group’ to talk to us about London-based Essar Energy and their destructive plans for the forests of Mahan. Democracy requires freedom to campaign, and freedom question the government. I’m proud of my Indian heritage, and that I was born in the world’s most populous democracy, but any undeserved detentions are a shameful stain on a nation.” Greenpeace said Pillai had written to the Indian home ministry asking for an explanation.