The Assam government invoking the National Security Act against activist Pranab Doley was part of a “growing pattern” of the Bharatiya Janata Party “weaponising extraordinary laws to silence dissent”, alleged the Congress on Monday.The Act allows for long periods of detention without trial up to a year.Doley was arrested on July 12, days after he took part in a protest against a hotel project at Ingle Pathar, a village adjoining the Kaziranga National Park.The police had alleged that he “unlawfully trespassed into the site of the Tea Tribes Museum and thereafter trespassed into the nearby ATDC [Assam Tourism Development Corporation] Hyatt project at Ingle Pathar with deadly weapons” during the protest.On July 29, a sessions court in Golaghat granted bail to Doley, stating that the investigating officer had already recorded the statements of key witnesses and that there was no possibility of the accused concealing or tampering with evidence.A day later, the BJP government in Assam detained him under the National Security Act, alleging that Doley had carried out “suspicious foreign transactions from doubtful sources” in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.This meant that he was not released from jail, despite the bail order.On Monday, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh described the Assam government’s allegations against Doley as “vague and speculative” and claimed that this was a familiar script followed by the Narendra Modi government.“Similar attempts have been witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, where the NSA was invoked against labour activists protesting against exploitative working conditions in Noida,” said Ramesh.On 30 July, the Assam Government invoked the National Security Act (NSA) against land rights activist Pranab Doley, just a day after the District Court granted him bail. This is a blatant misuse of preventive detention laws and overreach by the state.Doley has been arrested for…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 2, 2026