The Union Home Ministry is mulling over a policy to disseminate a list of individuals debarred from entry into India to foreign missions after immigration authorities at the Bengaluru International Airport on Saturday turned away a Greenpeace International campaigner Aaron Gray-Block, who had a valid business visa.
Speaking to The Hindu on the phone from Sydney, Mr. Gray-Block, an Australian citizen, said he was surprised when immigration officials detained him at the airport, then confiscated his passport and deported him by putting him on a flight to Kuala Lumpur.
“Though I have received no official communication I heard that I have been blacklisted from entry. This is nothing but a smear campaign,” he said.
Indian missions abroad to prevent entry of persons who are blacklisted
After Greenpeace international campaigner from Australia, Aaron Gray-Block was deported from Bengaluru International Airport on Saturday, the Union Home Ministry, which had earlier frozen the bank accounts of the NGO, plans to put in place an institutional mechanism for cancelling the visas of individuals blacklisted for alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to the national interest.
“There is a need to avoid a situation in which a person will have to be sent back after entering India. Therefore, the Ministry is planning to put in place the new policy for blacklisted individuals,” said an MHA official.
Under the new system, through the foreign missions, the government may also intimate the individuals concerned that they have been put on the blacklist.
According to the MHA, Mr. Gray-Block was blacklisted as he was allegedly found involved in campaigns detrimental to the country’s economic growth. “He had campaigned against mining of the Mahan coal block in Madhya Pradesh and written articles and blogs criticising the Indian government,” the official added.
Mr. Gray-Block had a valid business visa and had visited India for the first time in November last year to attend a series of staff skills sharing sessions.
Greenpeace India Programme Director Divya Raghunandan said in a statement that the NGO supported the free movement of people across the world, which is crucial to the work of business as well as charities. “There is absolutely no reason why one of our staff members should be treated in such an arbitrary way,” she said. In June 2014, Penny Vera-Sanso, a U.K.-based academic was similarly denied entry into India.
