On Sunday, the Delhi police arrested a 21-year-old climate activist, Disha Ravi, from Bengaluru for her alleged involvement in sharing of the ‘toolkit’ related to the farmers’ protest on social media. The controversy over the toolkit began when Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg posted the toolkit on her official Twitter handle. She later deleted the tweet, but it was on a public platform long enough for the Delhi Police to launch an enquiry into the toolkit.
What are the ongoing farmers’ protests in India?
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi against the three laws — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act.
The farmers are protesting at Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri border points of Delhi since November, demanding that the Centre scrap the new farm legislation.
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The stalemate over the farm laws continues as 11 rounds of talks between the Central government ministers and farmer leaders have failed to achieve any breakthrough.
What is a toolkit?
A toolkit has become common at most protests these days. It is a booklet or document aimed at explaining a particular cause or issue. A toolkit’s aim is to address the issue from the grassroots level.
The controversy began after US pop star Rihanna tweeted a CNN article on February 2 about the farmers’ protest with the caption ‘Why are we not talking about this’. Soon after, the protests also received support from several international stars like Thunberg, former porn star Mia Khalia, and YouTube content creators Lilly Singh and Amanda Cerny.
On February 3, Greta Thunberg put out a tweet on the farmers’ protest.
What does the toolkit contain?
The ‘toolkit’ tweeted by Thunberg, is a document that claims to ‘enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers protests in India to better understand the situation’. It also states that the document is aimed at helping people make decisions on how to support the farmers based on their own analysis.
Explaining why the farmers are protesting, the toolkit says, “Instead of being supported to become self-reliant and prosperous, a majority of farmers are increasingly being subjected to the control of large corporations and international institutions whose sole focus is profits, and necessarily involves increased exploitation of nature.”
“The same destructive forces that are destroying the planet are the ones taking over the lives of our country’s most populous and important demographic, subjecting them to increasing hegemony and repeating similar patterns of privatization being seen across the globe – from the Philippines to Colombia,” it adds.
Who created this toolkit?
The Delhi Police has alleged that the toolkit on the farmers’ protest was created by Poetic Justice Organisation (PJO). The PJO is headed by Canada-based Sikh Mo Dhaliwal. Dhaliwal is also the founder and director of Vancouver-based PR firm Skyrocket.
An alumnus of the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Dhaliwal is a stringent firm supporter of the Khalistan movement.
“I am a Khalistani. You might not know this about me. Why? Because Khalistan is an idea. Khalistan is a living, breathing movement,” he said in a Facebook post.
What does the Delhi police say?
After a preliminary enquiry into the ‘toolkit’, the Delhi Police said that it was designed to ‘encourage disaffection and ill-will’ against the government.
“Preliminary enquiry has revealed that the ‘toolkit’ in question appears to have been created by a pro-Khalistani Organisation ‘Poetic Justice Foundation’,” police said in a statement, citing Sikh separatists who want to create a homeland of Khalistan in India’s northern Punjab state.
