NSUI Protests Against Disha Ravi's Arrest, Know All About The Climate Activist Under Scanner

New Delhi: The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) staged an agitation here on Wednesday against the arrest of environment activist Disha Ravi and alleged that the government is "flirting with fascistic techniques" to quell democratic protests in the country.

The members of the students' wing of the Congress raised slogans against the BJP-led Centre and the Delhi Police for the "authoritarian crackdown on activists and supporters of the farmers' agitation".

NSUI president Neeraj Kundan alleged that the Bengaluru-based climate activist was arrested and brought to Delhi without a transit warrant.

"This government flirting with fascistic techniques of quelling democratic protests is nothing new. By waging a war against the students and youth of India, (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi's authoritarian face has once again come out.

"Only four sedition cases out of the 191 filed after this government came to power have resulted in convictions. The government uses tough laws and misuses them to silence all dissenting voices," he said in a statement.

Ravi was arrested from Bengaluru on Saturday by the Delhi Police for allegedly creating and sharing a toolkit in support of the farmers' agitation against the Centre's new agriculture laws.

The Delhi Police had said on Monday that Ravi, along with Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune-based engineer Shantanu Muluk, created the toolkit that was shared with others to tarnish India's image and collaborated with pro-Khalistani elements.

The NSUI said the government has "ignored the true essence of democracy" and its "Hitlership attitude" has ruined the country's image, adding that it should look into the matters of Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur, who had allegedly incited violence in Delhi last year.

"We recommend the government to put these people behind the bars, instead of locking those who are supporting the farmers' protest," it said.

Know All About Disha Ravi Here

Disha Ravi has been featured in publications across the world as a young activist voicing her strong opinions about the environmental crisis in India. However, the 21-year-old climate activist from Soladevanahalli area of Bengaluru was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell on Saturday for her alleged role in the infamous "toolkit" which, according to police, was behind the January 26 violence in the capital.

Graduating from Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru, she has been regularly writing columns and articles in leading news portals on climate action and is a familiar name in important climate forums frequented by youth activists across the globe.

Disha describes herself as co-founder of Fridays For Future, India.

In an interview to Auto Report Africa in 2020, she is quoted as saying: "My motivation to join climate activism came from seeing my grandparents, who are farmers, struggle with the effects of the climate crisis. At the time, I wasn't aware that what they were experiencing was the climate crisis because climate education is non-existent where I'm from. Only when I did my research, did I find out about it."

However, Disha's role came under the lens of the Delhi Police after Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted a toolkit document which the police say had led to the January 26 violence in New Delhi. Though the Delhi Police did not name Thunberg in the FIR, it went ahead to register the case against the authors of the toolkit.

The police later described Disha Ravi as key conspirator in the document's formulation and dissemination and said that she started a WhatsApp group and collaborated to draft the document.

"In this process, they all collaborated with pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation to spread disaffection against the Indian state. She was the one who shared the Toolkit doc with Greta Thunberg," said a senior police officer.

The "toolkit" is a term activists use for a campaign information document.

However, the Delhi Police also said that she asked Greta to remove the main document after its incriminating details accidentally leaked into the public domain. This is many times more than the two lines editing that she claims, they said.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR on February 4 on charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting hatred among groups under Sections 124-A, 120-A and 153-A of the Indian Penal Code against the "creators" of the 'toolkit', which was shared by Thunberg.