Hyderabad: Citizens from the city came out in support of climate activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested by the Delhi police on various criminal charges.
The solidarity meet was led by Swecha (a Hyderabad-based environmental organisation), and the protestors also called out tech companies like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp for compromising the privacy of individuals to “serve the agenda of a particular ideology”.
“Is being concerned about the rights of people and farmers a crime? Is editing a google document that explained the situation of farmers a crime? Disha’s only crime was she cared about all of us!” said Praveen from Swecha at the gathering which was held at People’s Plaza.
Aditya, an animal rights activist, said that the police only arrested Disha to create fear amongst other concerned citizens, and especially among the youth.
“But maybe the establishment doesn’t know the history of India. It was the young in this country that went to jails, faced sedition and even took bullets, but didn’t give up against Britishers. We will follow the footsteps of our ancestors and we won’t stop at anything. Nothing can scare us from raising our concerns for the nation,” said another activist Kiran Chandra.
Chandra even blasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said that the youth of India which once said “har-har Modi” and brought him to power are now asking him to “go back”. “You can call yourself a 56-inch chest but you’re scared of a 22-year-old girl. This will get bigger and much bigger,” he added.
Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old climate activist from Banglore was arrested on February 13 for allegedly editing and sharing a toolkit that was first shared by global climate activist Greta Thunberg. Ravi was charged with sedition and accused of conspiring against the country, among other things. She is currently awaiting a court order on her bail plea which is due on 23rd February.
