Farmers' protests toolkit: Delhi Police's interest in Disha Ravi's activism not new, NGO's campaign against EIA was also probed
New Delhi: While the Delhi Police's arrest of 22-year-old Bengalurean climate activist Disha Ravi has angered and shocked activists across the country, this is not the first time police in New Delhi have swooped down on Ravi's activism and work related to organising public support for causes against policies of this Central government.
The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested Ravi for being an editor of a public Google document — dubbed a Toolkit — that listed out information on the contentious farm laws, suggested hashtags and content to organise public support on Twitter on behalf of the protesting farmers. Toolkits are a common way to organise and coordinate online public support for any cause. In fact, Ravi has been part of many toolkits that were made for environmental causes.
However, last year, the NGO Ravi co-founded and is head of in India, Fridays for Future India, was censored by the Central government along with two other NGOs, through the Delhi Police, first under sections of the anti-terror law UAPA and then under sections of IT Act, for organising public support regarding environmental concerns of passing the draft Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of 2020. This campaign also has a toolkit to inform citizens about the EIA notification and its impact on the environment.
Fridays for Future India is the India chapter of the climate movement started by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to engage school students in protecting the environment.
According to one report in Newslaundry, the Delhi Police Cyber Cell had first sent a notice to the internet service provider that hosted the servers for FFF and asked it to block the group's website alleging that its "unlawful activities may disturb the peace and sovereignty of India".
The notice came after a complaint from Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, which alleged similar emails being received on the draft EIA from multiple email ids.
But according to the activists who had organised the campaign to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of passing this draft EIA, the campaign was designed to highlight genuine concerns by consolidating the information in one place and asking concerned citizens to email these concerns to the government.
They had at the time said this was the most basic work related to organising public participation in the policymaking process. The draft EIA notification had itself sought objections and concerns regarding the draft. Activists from FFF and their lawyer had told reporters that the NGO had prepared a list of concerns about the EIA and then asked concerned citizens to read it and themselves email it to the authorities — thereby facilitating public
participation.
Citizens could add to the prepared template letter if they wanted but FFF's lawyer, at the time, said that the confusion stemmed from the Minister assuming all emails came from FFF and not that many residents were sending him a list of concerns consolidated by the NGO.
This letter's contents are publicly available on the FFF website for any resident to read and send to the Union Minister.
While the Delhi Police's initial notice was under the UAPA, it was later amended to be issued under the IT Act, a few days after which the website was partially unblocked.
Now, the Special Cell has said that Ravi was responsible for editing and sharing a "toolkit", that was later shared by 18-year-old Greta Thunberg, intended to gather online support for the cause of agitating farmers in north India. The police argued in court that Ravi was a key conspirator in the document's formulation and dissemination, alleging that she started a WhatsApp group and collaborated to make the Toolkit document, working closely with its creators to draft the document.
Police said the creators of the documents conspired with pro-Khalistani elements and to "disaffection against the Indian state". She has been arrested in a case with charges including that of Sedition.
In court, while breaking down, a teary-eyed Ravi told the judge, "I didn't make the toolkit, we wanted to support the farmers...I only edited two lines on February 3."
According to multiple interviews and magazine articles that have hailed Ravi's work in the fight against climate change, she was a common face at local lake clean-ups in Bengaluru and as per her colleagues and friends, was always very active and serious about her work.
She always wanted to work in culinary sciences but when she was studying at Mount Carmel College, was alerted to the cruelty in the meat industry, following which her climate activism began. She then became vegan and now works for a vegan start-up.
Newspapers and magazines like The Guardian and Vogue have also featured her organising and grassroots work in their pages. Late on Sunday night, Ravi's sister took over her Twitter account and said on behalf of the family that Ravi had been arrested under fabricated charges.
