PRESS RELEASES

February 19th, 2024

Luke Parker, Assembly for Human Rights

Recently, Texas Governor Gregory Abbott brokered a deal with India that promised an influx of money and trade into the Texas economy. Many have praised this move, and the jobs it will create, as well as the boost it will bring to the Texas economy. Few have considered the cost. Most are completely unaware of the blatant human rights violations committed by Texas’ new economic partners. 

Consider the man who helped broker this deal, a close friend of Governor Abbott, who hosted the Governor at his home in India during the negotiations. A man named Naveen Jindal, the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power; one of the wealthiest men in India; the man who has a Texas business school named after him; a man who has promoted himself as a humanitarian, bent on making the world a better place; and a man who has stolen tribal lands, destroyed the environment, and hired thugs to harass, rape, and murder those who oppose him.

Re-read the last part of that sentence. That’s the part most press-releases don’t mention. Naveen Jindal has stolen tribal lands, destroyed the environment, and hired thugs to harass, rape, and murder those who oppose him.

In 2000, Jindal toured some tribal land in Chattisgarrh, India, looking for property where he could build an industrial complex and a school. He found the perfect location. But there was a problem. He did not own the land, and the land was not for sale. In fact, the land belonged to the Adivasi, one of the oldest indigenous people groups in the world. And so Jindal used his political power and wealth to take the land by force. The fact that both Jindal and his father were members of Indian Parliament certainly helped him achieve his goals.

Many Adivasi in the village of Punjipathara were forced from their land and became refugees, forced to scavenge for a bite to eat or a place to sleep. Those who resisted were met with brutal force from police, who protected Jindal’s workers as they began to ravage the land. They destroyed farmlands, redirected waterways, toppled power-lines, and paved new roads through the property they seized. When they tried to get local tribal members to sign paperwork handing the land over to them, anyone who refused was met with military level brute force. Many were arrested and imprisoned until they signed. Others who refused died in mysterious “accidents.”

According to Ashok Saket, a journalist who visited the land in December, 2023, the BJP government of Chhattisgarh used the Land Acquisition Act of 1984 to acquire the land, and then leased it to Jindal for development at a “minimum price.” However, all of this was done without permission from those who legally owned the land. 

Tarika Tarangini, who has now taken the Sikh name Jarnail Kaur, has been fighting Jindal in court since 2004. The fight has cost her dearly. Her brother was killed under mysterious circumstances after leaving police custody. She has been physically and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions, and has been warned that she would experience much worse if she persisted in her battle against Jindal. Recently, a former employee of Jindal, Sumer Pelhalwan, has come forward and admitted that Jindal hired him to rape Jarnail, and when he refused, Jindal’s men fractured his bones and almost beat him to death.  

Over the past twenty years, Jindal has taken this land, and built multiple factories on it, as well as a school he named in honor of his father. He has done so with government support, and has used excessive force to bully anyone who opposes him. He has destroyed the lives of the local indigenous Adivasi population, taking away their homes and their livelihood, and has purged the land of its resources, making it almost unlivable. 

Saket describes it this way. “The environment here has been completely polluted due to the pollution emanating from large-scale established iron and steel factories, industries, coal mines and heavy vehicles. The effect of this pollution on the health of the local people is also clearly visible. Due to the poisonous smoke and dust coming out from these factories, the crops remaining on their lands are also completely destroyed.”

This is the atrocious legacy of a man Texas Governor Gregory Abbott calls a friend; the man who helped broker a trade deal between Texas and India. This is the man who supposedly personifies all that is good about India. This is the man who has a business school named after him in Texas. 

Do the good people of the state of Texas really want blood on their hands? Is it worth a boost to the Texas economy if it comes at the price of environmental destruction and stolen tribal land, not to mention rape and murder?

Texas can do better than this. Please share this information and help us spread the word about what Naveen Jindal has done to tribal people in India. Maybe then the Texas governor will reconsider those with whom he chooses to forge an alliance.