The government has initiated action against the India chapter of Greenpeace for alleged anti-India activity.
An Australian staff member of Non-Governmental Organisation Greenpeace has been barred from entering India despite holding a valid visa. Home Ministry sources told NDTV Aaron Gray-Block was turned away from the Bengaluru airport as his name figured on a blacklist.
The government has initiated action against the India chapter of Greenpeace for alleged anti-India activity.
Greenpeace said Mr Gray-Block, who had come to attend a series of meetings in India, was put on a flight to Kuala Lumpur without explanation. His passport was seized and only returned to him once he had landed in the Malaysian capital.
"Our colleague has a valid business visa, and yet he was prevented from entering India with no reason given," Divya Raghunandan, programme director of Greenpeace India, said in a statement. "We are forced to wonder if all international staff of Greenpeace will now be prevented from entering the country."
Denying the ban had anything to do with his ministry, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said, "We value NGOs' participation and we have held a meeting of more than 500 NGOs for inputs, but it cannot just be a monopoly of a few."
Last June, the home ministry had blocked foreign funding to the Indian arm of the environmentalist group as part of a wider crackdown against non-governmental organisations which, it said, misreported foreign aid. It was also among the activist groups accused of "stalling development projects" by protesting against power projects, mining and genetically modified food.
Greenpeace has accused the government of waging a "malicious campaign" against it. In January, one of its campaigners, Priya Pillai, was stopped from leaving Delhi after being blacklisted.
The NGO was given a life line by the Delhi High Court, which allowed it to operate two of its domestic accounts for domestic funding.