Rahul meets Greenpeace's Pillai, others

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.