Arrest is an attack on democracy: CM
NEW DELHI: A day after Bengaluru-based green activist Disha Ravi, 22, was sent to police custody for five days for allegedly editing and sharing on social media an online “toolkit” related to the farmers’ protests, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called the arrest “an unprecedented attack on democracy”.
“Arrest of 21 yr old Disha Ravi is an unprecedented attack on Democracy. Supporting our farmers is not a crime,” Kejriwal tweeted on Monday.
Later, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said the party demands her immediate release.
The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, called the AAP’S defence of Ravi “pathetic”.
Ravi, founder of the Indian wing of climate activism group Fridays For Future -- founded by renowned Swedish activist Greta Thunberg -- was arrested by the Delhi Police from Bengaluru on Saturday. Police alleged that she was one of the editors of a toolkit that “indicates a copycat execution of a conspiracy” behind the January 26 violence during the farmers’ tractor rally in the national capital.
However, the 22-year-old’s arrest was criticised on several quarters -- from academics to activists to civil society members to several political leaders -- and sparked protests in Bengaluru and Mumbai demanding her release .
“The AAP believes that this arrest is an extrajudicial abduction. With this arrest, the BJP has made it clear that they are rattled by the voices and the protests against the three farm laws across the country and abroad. Dissent is not equal to sedition. A difference of opinion with the ruling party or with the policies or laws of the government is also
How insidious was the two-line edit that shook the very foundations of our strong democracy? We don’t think that
India is so weak
not sedition. The BJP is trying to suppress the voice of dissent,” said Chadha, who is also the party’s MLA from Rajendra Nagar.
He said the BJP “seems to be setting in motion an undeclared emergency in the country”.
“Could the prime minister be pleased to state the exact two lines which Ravi claimed to have edited? Could the government show us just how dangerous was the wording of those two lines that the Delhi Police went all the way to Bengaluru to arrest Ravi. How insidious was the two-line edit that shook the very foundations of our strong democracy? We don’t think that India is so weak,” Chadha said.
Chadha also denied that activist and lawyer Nikita Jacob, another person against whom the police issued a non-bailable warrant in connection with the toolkit, is linked with the AAP.
“I have not heard of this name before. No person with this name has been a member of the AAP in Mumbai or else where as per my knowledge,” Chadha said.
The Delhi BJP, however, slammed the AAP’S support for Ravi, and said: “The day is not far when the AAP may even defend Deep Sidhu.” The reference was to a Punjabi actorturned-activist who was caught by the Delhi Police for his alleged role in the violence during the tractor rally in the Capital on January 26.
“Every nationalist feels sad to see AAP leader Raghav Chadha’s statement on Ravi’s arrest. It’s pathetic to see the AAP defend misguided youths starting from Umar Khalid to Ravi. It seems the day is not far away when the AAP may defend even Deep Sidhu,” said BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor.
Tanvir Aijaz, political scientist and professor at Delhi University’s Ramjas College, said the definition of protests, criticism and activism has been largely blurred in the country these days.
“These ideas are being mistaken as if there is some kind of attack on the state, whereas in reality, it is the contrary. Activism or dissent is needed to reform the state. Protests help fix accountability. Government is the accountability holder which means it has to ensure nothing untoward happens and people must ensure the establishment is under check from time to time. Activism or protest has been labeled as conspiratorial, but it is good because more the reforms, the better the nation becomes,” said Aijaz.