Global Naga Forum (GNF) and Naga Scholars’ Association (NSA) have separately condemned the travel restriction imposed on Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) secretary general Neingulo Krome by the Centre.
In a press release, GNF informed that on April 7, 2025, Krome was detained at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi while en route to Kathmandu, Nepal, and sent back to Nagaland.
GND said Krome was travelling to Kathmandu to attend a meeting organized by the Asia Indigenous Peoples’ Pact (AIPP). The forum asserted that this was not the first time Krome was denied the right to travel abroad and sent back home. It stated that even on February 5, 2020, he was forcefully returned to Nagaland from the airport in Kolkata while travelling to Bangkok for a meeting.
On both occasions, GNF said the vague justification the Indian authorities gave for denying him the right to travel was a blunt “You cannot travel.”
Affirming solidarity with Krome for his right to travel abroad, GNF said the Supreme Court’s ruling going back to 1960s says that the right to travel abroad was a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The forum, therefore, said the government cannot invalidate the right without a proper procedure established by law.
GNF appealed the Centre to immediately “remedy this serious violation of India’s constitutional guarantee” and restore Krome’s right to travel freely without delay.
NSA: Condemning of “arbitrary travel denial” to Neingulo Krome by the Centre, the Naga Scholars’ Association (NSA) said that denying Krome to travel without legitimate explanation or lawful justification on April 7, 2025 was not an isolated incident.
In a press release, NSA said it was “part of a disturbing pattern” of targeted harassment and obstruction that Krome had faced time and again over the years from successive governments.
The association said that repeated attempts to disrupt his movements – through airport detentions, unexplained surveillance, or bureaucratic hindrances – were a clear violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed to every individual under any democratic country.
NSA said denying Krome to travel was not just an affront to one individual, but emblematic of a “deeper malaise”—a state machinery increasingly insecure in the face of dissent and diversity.
Further, the association said that “this action lays bare the narrow-mindedness” of the current ruling dispensation and its unwillingness to tolerate alternative voices, especially those that challenged its narrative of control and conformity.
“Such actions are also a stark reminder of the diminishing space for democratic dialogue in India,” NSA said. Recalling that Krome was earlier harassed by government agencies, including unwarranted questioning, disruptions to his professional engagements, and surveillance intended to intimidate, NSA said present incident was merely a continuation of a troubling tradition of state overreach.
The association called upon all democratic institutions, civil society organizations, and conscientious citizens to “speak out against this blatant misuse of power.”