A second toolkit was in works: Police
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday said the activists involved in the creation of a social media toolkit on the ongoing farmers’ protests prepared a second document to organise a Twitter storm aimed at “creating unrest” in Delhi on February 4 and 5 with hashtags related to the violence during January 26 tractor rally, but could not execute it.
Investigators said the second document was created by Nikta Jacob, Shantanu Muluk -- two activists who have been accused of creating and sharing the first document -- and and a Uk-based activist Marina Patterson, who is allegedly linked with the global movement “Extinction Rebellion” also referred to as “XR”.
According to its website, Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse.
“The plan mentioned in the second toolkit, however, could not be executed. We suspect it happened because the toolkit was accidentally tweeted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on February 3, the day Ravi shared it with her and coaxed her to act on it. Since the Google toolkit documents contained objectionable content, Ravi panicked, asked Greta to delete the tweet, took the admin rights and removed her name from the toolkit,” said a second senior police officer associated with the case, requesting anonymity.
According to the officer, the investigating team has already written to Google seeking details of both toolkit documents to ascertain where they were actually created, who drafted and edited them, and with whom it was shared.
The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru on charges of sedition, intending to riot and criminal conspiracy, for editing and creating a toolkit, essentially a Google document. The police have alleged that the toolkit was created to spread misinformation and incite unrest. They have also alleged that Disha shared the document with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who tweeted it but later removed it.
Both Muluk and Jacob have been grated pre-arrest bail court.
Activists from various organisations have said that creating a toolkit was standard operating procedure for advocacy and media outreach, and did not constitute a crime as it was entirely up to people whether or not to follow what toolkits suggested.
Protests against the arrests of the activists continued on Wednesday with members of the Congress-backed NSUI demonstrating in Delhi, accusing the police of an “authoritarian crackdown”
In a statement, NSUI president Neeraj Kundan said, “The government uses tough laws and misuses them to silence all dissenting voices.”
GHAZIABAD: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday reiterated his position to hold panchayats in poll-bound West Bengal to raise the issues of farmers there.
He and other farmer leaders held regular panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other areas in the National Capital Region to shore up support for their protest against the Centre’s three farm laws.
“We will definitely go to West Bengal; it is not as if the state is outside the country. We are getting a lot of response from our panchayats and this has baffled the government. Farmers are facing issues in West Bengal as well and their issues should find a way to the manifestos of political parties who intend to come to power. There, farmers are not getting the appropriate price (for their crops) while those involved in fisheries are also facing problems,” Tikait said.
BJP leaders are holding rallies in West Bengal in the run-up to the assembly elections expected in April or May.
On Tuesday, BJP president JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah met with party leaders from Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh. Sources in BJP said it was intended to reach out to farmers, panchayats and khaps over the issue of the three farm laws.
Both western UP and Haryana have major Jat populations.
“It is good that BJP leaders are discussing farm laws and trying to reach out to farmers. Internally, they are basically worried about letting slip their vote bank and are now trying to win over farmers,” said Jagtar Singh Bajwa, a farmer leader from Uttarakhand and member of the UP Gate farmers’ committee.
“If their leaders speak to farmers, then they will come to know. The government is trying to talk to the people of one caste, but it is not an agitation of any one caste and this, the people will show them. Let them hold talks. We ask them whether only Jats voted for them. It seems they are trying to play the caste card. Caste and religion cards have been exhausted now as we are playing the ‘kisan card’ to raise the issues of farmers,” Tikait said.
“We will see what new card they play next. Their cards die out in five days and they try to bring in new cards each time. They are now trying to divide us into castes, and this does not send out a good message. Our intent is to ensure that the government listens to our demand,” he added.
The last round of talks between the government and farmers’ union were held on January 22, after which no talks have been scheduled so far.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a body of farmers’ unions at the Singhu border, issued a statement Wednesday in which it said: “It is clear that instead of resolving the ongoing agitation, the BJP is trying its best to counter and destroy it. The SKM condemns this attitude of the ruling party and demands that the government resolve the farmers’ issues without any further delay. The SKM vows that it will intensify the struggle and mobilise more farmers in its support.”
BJP leaders declined to comment over the agenda of the meeting held by their senior leaders on Tuesday.
“The BJP has never done politics of caste and will never do it. This dharna (sit-in) by the Kisan Union is no andolan (agitation) and has flopped, which is why they are making such comments. Our party people and leaders are always with the common man and they have held a lot of programs to reach out to people. Even our senior leaders in UP have held such programs,” said Chandra Mohan, spokesperson and state secretary of BJP – UP. w
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