Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.
By Aditi Parashar ’22
Staff Writer
Greta Thunberg tweeted a “toolkit” for the farmers’ protests currently happening in India on Feb. 2. Thunberg is not the first prominent figure to have spoken out about the current protests. Her tweet came after Rihanna shared a CNN article on the Indian government cutting off the internet near protest sites with the caption, “why aren’t we talking about this?!” These tweets, however, had real-world implications for the activists on the ground, such as 21-year old Disha Ravi.
On Feb. 13, Ravi, a climate activist, was arrested in Bengaluru. Ravi was flown to Delhi and placed in police custody for “sharing and editing” the toolkit that Thurnberg originally tweeted, independent news organization Newslaundry reported. The toolkit was a Google Doc that was “a compilation of information, hashtags, suggested actions, ideas and contacts for those who wanted to help support the farmers — a common tool of organised protest movements,” according to The Guardian.
Ravi, along with lawyer-activist Nikita Jacob and climate activist Shantanu Muluk, has been charged by the Delhi Police with “sedition,” “criminal conspiracy” and “promoting hatred,” crimes which are under the direct jurisdiction of the central Bharatiya Janata Party government. They also claimed that the toolkit shared was proof of a coordinated conspiracy “to wage economic, social, cultural and regional war against India.”
Ravi’s arrest brought even more international attention to India’s restrictions of democratic freedoms. According to Time magazine, the country has so far seen “worsening freedom of the press and detentions of journalists, internet shutdowns and violent responses to non-violent protesters.”
Kusha Chopra ’21, a student from India, weighed in on this growing issue. “The BJP government has a track record when it comes to draconian approaches to opposition of any kind,” Chopra said. “They’ve been successful in spinning a narrative that paints anyone who disagrees with their policies as people against the idea of India itself. The way they’ve jailed activists, scholars and critics over the past years shows that their goal is to scare every dissenting voice into silence.”
In her court hearing, Ravi said she had simply edited two lines of the toolkit and claimed that the document was not seditious in nature. “I was just supporting the farmers. I supported the farmers because they are our future, and we all need to eat,” she said as she broke down in the courtroom, after which she was sentenced to five days in jail. She was not allowed bail after her five days were up and was remanded for three additional days of judicial custody. “If highlighting farmers’ protest globally is sedition, I’m better in jail,” Ravi claimed through her lawyer.
Shreya Nair ’21, another student from India, said, “It’s very important to remember that Disha still has social capital in India. Of course what has happened to her is wrong but she has resources available to her that many of the minorities who have faced the same situation do not have.”
On Feb. 23, Ravi was granted bail by a Delhi court that stated that citizens cannot be put behind bars for disagreeing with government policies, according to the Hindustan Times.