FIR against ‘toolkit’ that planned farmers’ protest

NEW DELHI: : The Delhi Police on Thursday said they have registered an FIR to probe a “toolkit”, or document, that allegedly detailed an action plan for online and offline protests linked to the ongoing farmers’ agitation, including those during a tractor rally in the national capital on Republic Day.

The toolkit was tweeted by Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg along with a post in support of the farmers.

At a briefing, special commissioner of police (crime) Praveer Ranjan said the FIR against the toolkit creators mentioned charges of criminal conspiracy and sedition, but did not name any individual. He was responding to a question that if police had registered a case against Thunberg.

Hours earlier, as reports of an FIR against Thunberg were flashed by multiple news outlets — police later clarified the FIR was against unknown persons — the 18-year-old activist posted: “I still #Standwithfarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #Farmersprotest.”

During the media briefing, Ranjan pointed to a “copycat execution of the action plan detailed in the toolkit” in the past few days, including the protests on January 26 that plunged into chaos. He said an initial probe revealed that the document was created by pro-khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF).

HT could not find any verified social media handle or contact number of PJF. The group’s website did not have any contact details. Ranjan did not specify who exactly would be probed or how the investigators planned to go about it.

The toolkit became a talking point after Thunberg shared a link to the document on Wednesday, deleted it, and then again posted an updated link on Thursday. “Here’s an updated toolkit by people on the ground in India if you want to help. (They removed their previous document as it was outdated.),” Thunberg, who has supported the farmers protesting against three controversial laws, said.

The updated toolkit, which HT has seen, gave a brief description of the ongoing agitation and called upon people to participate or organise on-ground protests, post tweets supporting the agitation, contact legal representatives and sign petitions. It did not appear to be out of the ordinary as guidelines for online protest campaigns go.

{ GRETA THUNBERG } ENVIRONMENT ACTIVIST

I still #Standwithfarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will change that.