New Delhi: More than 60 groups of people’s movements, organisations, trade unions, democratic rights and concerned citizens have strongly condemned the invocation of National Security Act (NSA) against Pranab Doley, an indigenous rights activist from Assam and the convener of Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, a day after the Golaghat sessions court granted him bail in a false case launched against several Adivasi and indigenous defenders by the Assam Police, calling the action “retaliatory and vindictive”.“The grounds cited in the order only go on to expose the vindictive and arbitrary nature of state action against Pranab for being a socially and politically active citizen and defender of rights, rather than being in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state or maintenance of public order as alleged,” read a letter by the undersigned group.Doley was arrested by the Assam police on July 12 over a sit-in protest in the area and was granted bail by a local court earlier this week on July 29. He, along with several indigenous families in Assam’s Golaghat district, have been opposing an upcoming five-star luxury resort proposed to be built on the edge of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in the region.The court, while granting him bail, had observed: “In matters where ecological preservation intersects with indigenous survival, the standard apparatus of criminal law cannot be used to suppress local anxieties.”The draconian law, which allows the Assam government to detain Doley without a trial or formal charges for up to 12 months, was notified to Doley through an official “communication” on July 30.The rights groups have said that its use against a land-rights activist after he secured bail “raises profound constitutional questions”. “If the government possesses evidence of an offence, it must place that evidence before the court and allow Pranab the full protection of his rights guaranteed under law. Preventive detention cannot become an alternative available to governments whenever ordinary criminal proceedings fail to keep an activist behind bars,” they said. “This is not merely the matter of targeting one activist. It strikes at the independence of the judicial process itself. Bail granted by a competent court cannot be rendered meaningless simply because the executive dislikes the outcome. Moreover, this sets a dangerous precedent where judicial orders granting bail to citizens can be subverted by the state, by abusing the process of law and employing extraordinary and preventive detention laws,” they added, noting that it poses a serious threat on the right to bail of an accused, under Article 21 of the Constitution.Also read: ‘If You Want to Build a Five-Star Hotel, Build It on Your Own Land’: Residents Oppose Kaziranga Hotel ProjectThe letter drew attention to similar action by the Assam government against peasant leader and anti-corruption activist Akhil Gogoi in 2017, then a leader of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), who had been arrested amid movements over farmers’ issues, dams, corruption and citizenship and following which, he was booked under the NSA. On December 21, 2017, the Gauhati high court had quashed his preventive detention, finding the detention order legally vitiated. “Then, as now, an activist associated with powerful people’s struggles was portrayed as a threat warranting extraordinary preventive detention. Then, as now, the state used a law intended for exceptional threats to national security and public order against political dissent against the policies of the government,” the letter read.The groups pointed towards the increasingly disturbing pattern across India in which those resisting land acquisition, displacement, environmentally destructive projects and corporate takeover of natural resources are subjected to criminal cases, prolonged incarceration and prosecution under extraordinary laws. “Governments cannot be permitted to convert dissent and disagreement over development policy into questions of national security. Adivasi and Indigenous communities asserting their rights over land and for protection of the environment and natural resources, are not enemies of the nation,” they said.The signatories have demanded that the NSA invoked against Doley and the protesting community members be taken back immediately, along with any other action against them. They have also demanded the immediate release of all activists and community members imprisoned in connection with the land struggles in Assam, including Adit Chandra Rabha who is currently in jail following his opposition to a proposed Satellite Township project at Barduar, and withdraw all such fabricated and politically motivated cases. They have called for an end to the use of preventive detention and extraordinary laws on protesters, independent probe into alleged police excesses, full disclosure and transparent review of land allotments in the Kaziranga project, and greater safeguards against the displacement of indigenous Adivasi, peasant and forest-dwelling communities of Assam.Below is the list of signatories:Adivasi Adhikar Manch, UdaipurAdivasi Samajonnati Seva Sanstha, Saphale, MaharashtraAll India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA)All India Inquilabi Youth and Students Alliance (ALIYSA)Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR)Basti Suraksha ManchCampaign Against Fabricated Cases, OdishaCampaign to Defend Nature and People (CDNP)Campaign for Survival with Dignity, OdishaCentre for Financial Accountability (CFA)Chennai Wetlands Action CollectiveCivil Society Women’s Organisation, MeghalayaChasi Mulia Sangha, OdishaChasi Mulia Suraksha Samiti, KandhamalChhatisgarh Bachao AndolanClimate Front IndiaClimate Front JammuClimate Front TelanganaDabla Khanan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, Neem-ka-than, SikarDARSHAN, AhmedabadDibang Resistance, Arunachal PradeshFridays for Future, IndiaFriends of the Earth – IndiaGrowthwatchHuman Rights Defenders Alert – IndiaIndian Social Action Forum – INSAFIndigenous Research and Advocacy (IRAP), Arunachal PradeshJagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS)Joint Action against Custodial Torture, Tamil NaduJustice in Mining NetworkKalpavrikshKaravali Karnataka Janabhivriddhi VedikeKashtakari Sangathana, Dahanu, MaharashtraKhandual Mali Sthayi Suraksha Samiti, KalahandiJodhpura Sangharsh Samiti, KotpuliLet India BreatheLokshakti Abhiyan, OdishaMaa Mati Mali Surakshya Manch (Kalahandi & Rayagada)Manthan Adhyayan KendraMuse FoundationNational Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ)National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR)National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)National Federation of Small-scale FishworkersNew Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)Niyamgiri Suraksha SamitiNorth East Human Rights (NEHR)Okhamandal Paryavaran Jan Sangharsh Samiti, Okha, GujaratParyavaran Suraksha Samiti, GujaratPeople for HimalayaPeople’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)People’s WatchRajasthan Asangathith Mazdoor UnionSAMATASarvahara Jan AndolanSaurashtra Dalit Sangathan, JunagadhSave Dol ka badh AndolanShoshit Jan AndolanSouth Asia Just Transition Alliance (SAJTA) IndiaStudents and Youth Collective, AhmedabadThere is No Earth BWangad Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, and Others