Headlines
Rahul meets Greenpeace's Pillai, others
New Delhi, June 4
Congress vice president
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday met representatives of various NGOs, including
Greenpeace's Priya Pillai, and assured them his party would be in
vanguard in defending fundamental rights and constitutional freedoms.
"A
wide cross-section of Civil Society Leaders met Rahul Gandhi on the
issue of BJP Govt's continuing attack on Freedom of Speech &
Dissent," said a post on the Twitter handle of office of Rahul Gandhi.
"Rahul Gandhi expressed full solidarity with the people's struggle to safeguard hard-won Constitutional freedoms," it said.
Pillai, who is a senior campaigner of Greenpeace, said that civil society has an important role to play in a democracy.
"We
will speak to all parties to stand up and protect the rights in the
constitution. We welcome the stand taken by Rahul Gandhi," Pillai told
IANS.
A release by the civil society organisations said that
Gandhi shared "the concerns raised by the delegation on democracy and
dissent being curbed".
Pillai was stopped on January 11 this year
from boarding a flight to London where she was scheduled to make a
presentation in the British parliament on the rights of forest-dwelling
communities affected by coal mining in Madhya Pradesh's Mahan.
Furthermore,
the organisation's account were ordered frozen by the government but
the Delhi High Court had last month allowed the NGO to operate two of
its domestic accounts.