DEBARSHI DASGUPTA interviews ANURADHA MITTAL
‘It’s like the British government trying to argue that colonialism in India was not its doing but that of the East India Company and a few rogue generals like Dwyer’
Why is that so many Indian investors are headed to acquire land in Ethiopia?
It is opportunistic—easier—to move in quickly to a country where one does not have to follow a lot of regulations and have a regime that is not too concerned by the absence of regulations to protect its people and the environment. With the civil society almost missing and dissent criminalized, the Ethiopian government can carry out its land lease project, ignoring human rights violations. No dissent is allowed. It doesn’t tolerate any opposition, especially political. 30,000 people were arrested during the last elections. NGOs are afraid to operate, they have had to shut down. The land that these Indian companies are being given has been forcefully taken away from indigenous communities and deals are struck with these firms in secrecy and without consultation of the local impacted communities.
When it is mainly the Ethiopian government that is responsible for the wrongdoing, why should India be held responsible?
We are certainly responsible. As a nation that takes pride in morality and non-violence, our investment policies must focus on development for all and in no harm to anyone. We need to set new standards. Instead the Indian firms are using the Ethiopian government to the dirty work so that they can operate easily. It’s like the British government trying to argue that colonialism in India was not its doing but that of the East India Company and a few rogue generals like Dwyer.
Does India want to be the Karuturi that is responsible for depravation, destitution in Ethiopia? Is that the legacy we want? The question is one of what kind of development paradigm we choose —the one that lifts all boats or the one the one that lifts just a few yachts? It is appalling that India, once colonised, has turned into a coloniser. Ethnic indigenous communities are being hunted down like animals to clear land for Indian firms and businesses. India is behind the government of Ethiopia that is unleashing this kind of terror.
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