Samuel Johnson, essayist and literary critic, is known for his scathing line, 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'. Johnson was born in Staffordshire, England, and died in 1784. And yet, his observation is one that several people have quoted over the past few years in India to describe the situation that we find ourselves in. A black comedy where anyone questioning the Union government is characterised as questioning the nation, as if the idea of India emerged only in 2014.
The latest addition to the list of 'anti-nationals' is Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi and others associated with the Greta Thunberg 'toolkit' that was circulated in support of the farmers' protest. According to the police, it is this toolkit which was responsible for the events on Republic Day when a tractor rally led by farmers turned violent at certain points.
In the typical style of the supporters of this regime, Disha has been compared to Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani terrorist who took part in the 2008 Mumbai attack that claimed over 160 lives; she has been equated to Burhan Wani, a commander of the terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, who was shot dead by security forces in 2016. This is the right wing's counter to those questioning why a young activist is being targeted. Bracketing her with men accused of terrorism because of their age.
As is common in cases where the target is a woman, there are attempts to tarnish Disha's character, too. Times Now, a media outlet known for its pro-BJP coverage, called her a single mom at 22 though she isn't one. Not that there's anything wrong in being a single mom at 22, but needless to say, this misreporting has only been used to villanise Disha. This is also in line with the social media memes showing morphed pictures of Disha that suggest she's pregnant — a snide reference to Safoora, an anti-CAA activist who was pregnant at the time of her arrest.
The Delhi police was swift in swooping in on Disha, co-founder of Fridays for Future, arresting her without a transit remand order, denying her an opportunity to consult with her lawyer, and making several claims in their press release about why she was arrested. This is the same Delhi police that is yet to arrest anyone for the violence that was unleashed on the JNU campus in January 2020 over the anti-CAA protests, despite photographs of the assailants circulating on social media.
The FIR against Disha lays out her alleged crime — she has been charged under Sections 124A (sedition), 153 (incitement to riots) and 153A (incitement of hatred between communities). The sedition law was enacted in 1860 under the British Raj for "offences against the state". While it was originally brought in to curtail the Wahhabi Movement that threatened British rule in the subcontinent, it didn't take long for the colonisers to use it to jail freedom fighters.
Ironically, in those times, someone charged with sedition was likely to be a patriot because he or she was questioning the oppressive state that governed them. Indeed, Lokmanya Tilak and Gandhi were among those who were arrested under the sedition law in those times. Gandhi even called it the "prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen".
The sedition law has been misused by governments time and again and several intellectuals have termed it an outdated piece of legislation that needs to be discarded. But even as that debate continues, the Delhi police is yet to establish how the toolkit, a campaign strategy that is widely used, led to violence. The toolkit that Greta tweeted and later deleted and replaced with another one, did not have any material on inciting violence/riots. Like the toolkits that are used in several campaigns, it contained the hashtags that could be used in support of the protest, the names of a few media outlets and celebrities who could be approached to amplify the voice of the protesters.
In fact, the BJP's IT cell is a big fan of the toolkit; from calling for the boycott of OTT shows, detergent and jewellery brands, to using pliant celebrities to support the government's actions, the repeated sentence constructions and hashtags we see on Twitter are not by magic. They are the result of toolkits generated by those who now decide for all of us what India stands for.
What then is the problem? The popular theory is that the toolkit was created by 'Khalistanis' to 'break India', even though the protest has been going on ever since the farm laws were passed in September 2020. The toolkit was created by the Canada-based Poetic Justice Foundation, an organisation that supposedly fights against systemic injustice. The co-founder of the non-profit, MO Dhaliwal, in an interview to The Indian Express, said that Poetic Justice Foundation has no links to the Khalistani movement that demands a separate nation for Sikhs.
However, Dhaliwal has in the past expressed pro-Khalistan sentiments on his social media page, and is also reported to have said the following in a speech in Vancouver on January 26: "If the farm Bills get repealed tomorrow, that is not a victory. This battle will begin with the repeal, it does not end there. If anybody tells you that this battle is going to end with the repeal that is because they are trying to drain energy from this movement. They are trying to tell you that you are separate from Punjab, you are separated from Khalistan movement, you are not.”
When asked why he spoke about Khalistan in the speech, he told IE, “As an expression of solidarity with Sikhs at a time when Sikhs in Canada were being maligned as terrorists."
Whether the Poetic Justice Foundation had any ulterior motive or not is a matter of investigation; but to villanise and compare a climate activist to a dreaded terrorist is abominable.
Disha's alleged crime is that she edited some parts of the toolkit created by the Poetic Justice Foundation, even though the toolkit, it must be reiterated, had nothing on rioting and inciting violence. Neither have the tens and thousands of farmers protesting on ground spoken about Khalistan although it was wrongly reported that they had raised the Khalistani flag at the Red Fort (it was the Sikh religious flag Nishan Sahib and the farmer's flag).
It is not at all unusual for different organisations and activists to collaborate on common causes and use their respective platforms to generate support for a campaign they believe in. Why then this iron fist? Why is the Union government and the police so desperate to see a 'foreign hand' (funnily, Indira Gandhi was fond of 'foreign hand' conspiracy theories) when the farmers have been protesting against a law that impacts them and was passed without consulting the stakeholders?
For months now, BJP supporters have tried to isolate farmers by painting the protesters as terrorists and Khalistanis. In the recent celebrity tweets against the alleged 'foreign hand' though, there was a shift in strategy. These tweets call farmers an 'integral part of India', the 'backbone of any country's ecosystem', 'lifeblood of this nation' and so on. The 'foreign hand' needed a face to be the strawman and who better than Indian activists who question the government?
Nobel Prize winner Malala, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to fight for the education of girls in Pakistan, famously said: "Extremists have shown what frightens them most: A girl with a book." She was talking about extremists in a country that chose to become an Islamic republic at the time of its formation. And here we are in a country that made a different choice at the same crossroad — a choice that we're now told, over and over again by 'toolkits' that sell rage, was a bad one.
Burhan Wani was a 21-year-old.
— P C Mohan (@PCMohanMP) February 14, 2021
Ajmal Kasab was a 21-year-old.
Age is just a number!
No one is above the law.
Law will take its own course.
A Crime is a crime is a crime is a crime.#DishaRavi pic.twitter.com/m6eRwAnMuf
Those tweeting for country’s unity should be booked & investigated.
— Nupur Sharma (@NupurSharmaBJP) February 15, 2021
Those conspiring & causing disaffection towards country and riot-mongering should be let-off because Vegan, because BBA, because gender, because age......
मतलब कुछ भी।
All 18+ people are equal before law. Age doesn't lessen your crime or feat. Alexis Alford travelled to all countries on earth when she was 21. Ajmal Kasab led the Mumbai attacks when he was 21. Let police probe; let #DishaRavi come out if she's innocent, else let her face it.
— Sreejith Panickar (@PanickarS) February 16, 2021
If people things #DishaRavi is just 21 & sympathetic towards her for this toolkit gate then they r inviting another Problem
— Being Sanatani (@anawakenedguy) February 14, 2021
Nirbhya's rapist:17yr
Kasab's age:21yr
Burhan age:21yr
Adil Ahmad Dar:20yr
STOP SAVING THEM BY SYMPATHISING VIA AGE!
Bachhe nahi hai time bomb hai saale pic.twitter.com/6Gn6b7d7Ft