Alumni support Disha, want her released
The Alumni from Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru extended its full support to 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi and condemned her arrest by the Delhi Police. Disha is an alumnus of the college and studied business administration there before she joined Goodmylk, a company that makes plant-based alternatives for dairy products.
In a statement, the alumni said: “The blatant targeting of a young woman citizen expressing her support with the nation’s protesting farmers is horrifying and completely unacceptable. We demand that the Delhi Police release her and the Bengaluru Police and Karnataka government act to protect the constitutional rights of a woman resident of the state of Karnataka.”
The statement said Disha Ravi coordinated with climate activists from around the world to highlight issues related to climate change. “She has coordinated with climate activists across the world to get politicians and corporations to act and undertake measures to prevent the world from getting worse. Her participation as a young woman of colour in climate change activism has been important in bringing attention to the vulnerabilities faced by marginalised communities in countries of Global South.”
Disha drew inspiration from the freedom struggle to protest and lend a voice to the farmers’ movement. “Her sense of history is remarkable as she has drawn from her personal, familial history of farmer-grandparents and the difficulties they suffered due to the impact of climate change on agricultural practices. She has also drawn her inspiration to protest and lend her voice to farmers’ protests in the country from the greatest of people’s movements in India—the Independence struggle,” the statement signed by 330 members of the Mount Carmel College alumni.
Disha Ravi was arrested by Delhi Police on Saturday from her home in north Bengaluru for editing parts of the ‘toolkit’ shared by Greta Thunberg, an international climate activist.
Meanwhile, Disha’s arrest sparked protests in Bengaluru with activists questioning whether due procedures were followed during her arrest. The activists wanted to know how Disha was picked up by the Delhi Police from Bengaluru without first securing a transit remand from a magistrate in Bengaluru.