The expansion of the Golden Triangle into India’s Northeast is an undeniable reality, yet one that both the Government of India and much of the national media refuse to even acknowledge. Why this silence? Why this reluctance to confront a menace that threatens the very fabric of Indigenous societies? Is it because profiteering interests are at play?

Or has the State compromised with poppy-growing communities and their armed narco-terror groups, the very groups it has entered into so-called “Suspension of Operation” agreements with? One must ask: is this arrangement in fact suspending operations against opium cultivation and the narcotics trade, rather than against insurgency?

This raises a deeper and more troubling question: Has the Government of India compromised the security and survival of Indigenous peoples of the Northeast in exchange for short-term political bargains and access to Myanmar’s rich minerals and rare earth resources?

The global community cannot remain indifferent. It must press the Government of India to answer these questions honestly, and to take transparent, rights-based measures to dismantle the narco-economy that is devastating Indigenous lands and lives.

~Khuraijam Athouba, Indigenous People’s Rights Activist

Promotional | North East Integration Rally