New Delhi: Immigration staff at the Delhi airport stopped lawyer Bhanu Tatak from boarding her flight to Dublin, Ireland, on Sunday (September 7), citing pending police cases in Arunachal Pradesh.

Tatak, who was later released, is the legal adviser to the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF) that has been actively protesting against the mega dam proposed by India on the Siang River.

While the state and Union governments have been pushing for the 12,000 megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), local communities along with the SIFF have protested against it repeatedly.

On Sunday, Tatak was traveling to Dublin to participate in a three-month fellowship at Dublin City University. The university’s letter to Tatak, accessed by The Wire, invites her “to deepen your learning on topics including history, literature, philosophy and sociology, and contribute to the intellectual life of the institution” – as a visiting specialist who would engage with faculty and students.

Tatak said that she was “wrongfully charged and incarcerated”. In a statement, she said she was stopped at immigration at the Delhi airport and her travels “cancelled” because of a complaint by the Itanagar police after she had already received her visa.

Deccan Herald cited unnamed sources as saying that the Itanagar police had registered cases against Tatak based on complaints by the state government for allegedly being part of the SIFF's agitation against the construction of the SUMP on the Siang River.

“Minister Ojing Tasing and commissioner P.N. Thungon have filed wrong charges against me for leading protests against the [SUMP] in Siang for which I'm being wrongfully incarcerated,” Tatak said.

“No notice has been given to me, neither has the immigration officer given any hold departure order,” she added.

The Wire has contacted Tasing, who is MLA for the Siang constituency in Arunachal Pradesh, for comments. Tasing has repeatedly held that the SUMP would be a project crucial for the state government and an important reply to China’s mega dam upstream on the same river. This story will be updated if a response is received.

Though she was later released on Sunday, Tatak missed her flight to Dublin. During protests in the Siang and neighbouring districts in Arunachal in December last year against the mega dam, Tatak had told The Wire that the survey for the pre-feasibility report for the dam project being implemented by the state government and authorities against the consent of local communities was “unconstitutional and unethical”. Authorities had deployed armed forces to implement the survey, much to the alarm of residents.

The SIFF, which Tatak serves as legal adviser, has actively been campaigning and protesting against the SUMP. Their main concerns, as well as those of local indigenous communities, revolve around displacement and the loss of agricultural lands and homes, the environmental impacts of the nearly 12,000 MW dam – which will be the biggest in India, if it is built – which is to be located in a seismically active area.

In May this year, the state deployed armed forces and brought in drilling machines to conduct the pre-feasibility report for the hydropower project. Protesting villagers burnt a hanging bridge to prevent the army from approaching the area.

The same month – and expressing solidarity with the SIFF – 30 rights groups across the country called on the state government to stop activities related to the construction of the dam and remove armed forces from the area with immediate effect.

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