Ex-IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan sent back from Allahabad airport, prevented from addressing CAA event

Former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who was scheduled to address a meeting in Allahabad against the Citizenship Amendment Act on Saturday was not allowed to leave the airport by the district administration and instead put on a flight to Delhi.

Gopinathan took to microblogging platform Twitter to post details of the event. His first tweet simply said, ‘Detained’.

Later, he tweeted: ‘Not allowed to get out of Allahabad airport and put on a flight to Delhi. Independent Banana Republic of Uttar Pradesh offers free Delhi travel every time. @myogiadityanath is so afraid of free speech. Will be coming again. Make your bookings in advance this time @Uppolice’

In yet another tweet, he said: ‘Dear @narendramodi, going to your constituency, varanasi, day after tomorrow to have that dialogue that you said is required in democracy. I don't think @myogiadityanath listens to you. Still, do tag him on that dialogue tweet. Let's see if UP is still in India?’

According to a report published on the BBC Hindi website, the event was organized by All India People's Forum. Kannan Gopinathan was to speak as a speaker at a seminar called 'Save Citizenship, Save the Constitution, Save Democracy' at the Sardar Patel Institute in Allahabad's Alopi Bagh.

But when the members of the organizing committee came to pick him up at the airport, they too came to know about his being detained from Gopinathan's Twitter handle.

Kamal Usri, the seminar’s organiser was quoted as saying, “We had prepared for this event for several days. The district administration had also been informed about the event a day earlier. Had Kannan attended the Gopinathan seminar, our event would have run for three hours, but ended in just one hour.”

As per the media report, SSP, Allahabad, Satyarth Anirudh said, “See, we got confidential information that in such a meeting, there can be some commotion and panic, so we asked Gopinathan to return to maintain peace. We explained to Kannan Gopinathan that you may be sensitive to the law and order. He is a bureaucrat himself. He understood the issue and returned.”

Gopinathan displayed a sense of humour, with his last tweet about the incident saying: ‘Dear @Uppolice, get me a window seat next time’.