Return my passport or take me to trial: Udayakumar

New Delhi: Anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar, who has been leading the people’s campaign against nuclear plant in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, has said that he will seek the court’s intervention to demand that his passport be returned to him or that he be taken to trial. On Tuesday, the convener of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), was prevented by immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from boarding a flight to Nepal where he was scheduled to attend a meeting of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. [caption id=“attachment_452314” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PMANE chief SP Udaykumar. PTI[/caption] According to media reports that quoted sources in the immigration department, Udayakumar was stopped from going to Nepal because of a lookout notice against him issued by the Tamil Nadu Police. Udayakumar’s passport has been impounded by the Tamil Nadu Police, which has slapped a ludicrous number of cases against him (over 380 cases), a scandal of sorts that led the Supreme Court to issue a directive to the Tamil Nadu government last year to asking it “to withdraw all the criminal cases filed against the agitators so that peace and normalcy be restored at Kudankulam and nearby places”. In response, the Tamil Nadu government in April informed the Supreme Court that as many as 101 cases against the agitators cannot be dropped as they included serious charges such as sedition, laying siege through the sea and waging war against India. Speaking to Firstpost following his detention on Tuesday at the airport, Udayakumar said, “I am planning to file a case asking the government to return my passport or take me trial for all the cases that have been filed against me. They cannot simply file false cases on people and curtail people’s freedom and violate our human rights in this way.” The officers who questioned him at the airport, Udayakumar said, asked him about his background. “It was mostly informal, friendly conversation. I was very patient with them. They mostly asked me about my background - where I went to college and what I did. They asked me some questions about the movement, about nuclear energy. One officer asked me what I thought of Maoism and If I believed in violence. These were the nature of questions. Most of the officers were in praise of Narendra Modi,” the PMANE chief said. Udayakumar recently filed a case in the Madras High Court seeking action against the officer who leaked the controversial Intelligence Bureau Report on foreign funded NGOs days after it was submitted to Prime Minister’s Office in June. The 21-page report IB report which named Udayakumar among other anti-nuclear activists made the rather sensational claim that the economic impact of the “anti-national” role of NGOs on India’s GDP was to the tune of 2-3 percent per annum. Asked how the new government compared with the last one on its policy towards NGOs and tolerance for dissent, Udayakumar said, “We thought the Modi government would put interests of Indian citizens ahead of foreign corporations. To my great dismay and disappointment, he is following the same policy of the Manmohan Singh government with more vigour and speed. It is getting worse.” The anti-nuclear activist, who is a member of the Aam Admi Party, said that current climate in India for human rights activists was a cause for worry. “With this kind of attitude and behaviour, I am beginning to worry about my personal safety. But I am going to be emphasising my fundamental human rights. After all, India is a democracy. And I am not going to be cowed down by this kind of harassment,” said Udayakumar.