The ink on his bail order was barely dry. Within 24 hours of walking free, indigenous land-rights activist Pranab Doley found himself locked up again — this time under a law so sweeping, the courts can’t touch him for up to a year.
The Arrest That Defied a Bail Order
On July 30, the Assam government notified Pranab Doley of his detention under the National Security Act (NSA) of 1980 — just one day after the Golaghat sessions court granted him bail. The 1980 Act allows the government to detain him without a trial or formal charges for up to 12 months. The “communication” came from the Assam Home and Political Department, signed by commissioner and secretary Diganta Borah, and was accessed by The Reporters’ Collective. The government cited alleged involvement in road blockages, damage to public property, and raised flags over what it called “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources in violation of FCRA.” In plain terms — the state used the most powerful detention law in its arsenal to make the bail order completely meaningless.
A Five-Star Hotel vs. A Hundred Villages
For the past four years, Doley and 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 September 2023, the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) inked an MoU with the Saraf group — which runs hotels using the international Hyatt brand license in India — committing a Rs 100 crore investment to develop the resort. Doley, as convenor of the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC), which includes residents of over 100 villages around the park, had been leading the resistance. Local residents say their land was forcibly acquired, and some were quietly handed Rs 3 lakh cheques with no formal documentation or explanation. The kind of deal that tells you everything about how seriously their rights were being taken.
What the Court Said — Before the Government Ignored It
While granting bail, Additional Sessions Judge NM Abdullah Ahmed said that the dispute “arises from a deep-rooted anxiety regarding environmental degradation and its impact on the socio-cultural fabric of the local Tea Tribes.” He went further, writing that “in matters where ecological preservation intersects with indigenous survival, the standard apparatus of criminal law cannot be used to suppress local anxieties. True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them.” A powerful observation. The government’s response? Invoke the NSA anyway.
The Broader Picture Nobody Should Miss
Despite Chief Minister Sarma repeatedly claiming the hotel would be built under the Hyatt banner, the company told the Business and Human Rights Centre that it had “not entered into any agreement to brand or operate the proposed hotel project at Inglay Pathar/Hathikuli near Kaziranga National Park.” That’s a significant contradiction at the heart of this entire project. Meanwhile, the Gauhati High Court had issued notices to the Assam government and ATDC over a petition by 20 evicted families presenting land records — families who say they were paying revenue taxes on land the government now calls its own. When Doley was detained on July 12 at a private residence in Guwahati, he was captured on video asking: “If I can’t voice my opinion for other people, what kind of democracy is this?”
That question still hangs in the air. And with the NSA now stripping away even a court-granted freedom, there’s no easy answer. When a bail order can be undone with a government letter, and when a UNESCO World Heritage site becomes the backdrop for corporate deals that uproot adivasi families, what exactly are the laws protecting — and for whom?
HASHTAGS
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