Indian Greenpeace activist, Priya Pillai, was scheduled to present to British parliament the harms of mining on indigenous communities when she was blocked from boarding her plane. Nongovernmental organizations are on alert that Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, is singling out NGO's that appear to harm the economic progress of the country, similar to the previous governmental policy. Although she was only advocating for the rights of the tribals and the natural resources, Pillai was considered a risk to national security "asserting that such testimony is used to gather information for human rights reports by Western countries." Although this article is describing the threats NGO's such as Greenpeace India, Amnesty International and ActionAid are facing, the issue of mining threatening indigenous peoples is not unique to India. I observed this issue firsthand in Ghana, a country in which legitimate mining operations (mainly for gold, but recently oil) has also led to illegitimate mining operations from China. Indigenous people who rely on their natural environment in order to subsist all over the world are facing very serious issues that hopefully this court case will illuminate a little bit more, as well as the force used against NGOs in the hopes of silencing an important voice for these communities. It will be interesting to see if there are any responses to this restriction by the international community, especially with India's growing prominence in the global arena.
Allie Grossmann
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