Dismay, anger at rallies to protest 22-year-old’s arrest

BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Demonstrations and online protests raged in many parts of the country on Monday after Delhi Police arrested Disha Ravi from her Bengaluru residence on Saturday.


In Bengaluru, activists affiliated to various organisations staged a demonstration. Historian Ramachandra Guha, who joined the protesters for a short time, said, “If you stand non-violently for farmers and oppose climate change, you are arrested. On the other hand, if you go from door to door, intimidating people to donate for the ruling party, you are free. Thuggishness in the name of BJP is allowed... peaceful protest in the name of democracy, human rights or environmental sustainability is a crime.”

Other protesters, mostly youths, accused Delhi Police and the Centre of following unethical ways in arresting Disha. All India Student Association national president N Sai Balaji said he would like to pose a few questions to Delhi Police. “Why did they not allow

Disha

to speak to her advocate in the city? Why was she not produced before the local court?” he said.

An online petition has garnered around 10,000 signatures demanding her release. “India should consider itself fortunate that its conscientious youngsters are actively engaged in shaping their future in the face of ecological catastrophes... these youngsters are exercising their constitutional rights and performing their fundamental duties by systematically holding the government accountable,” read the petition.

Another young climate activist, Ridhima Pandey, came out in support of Ravi. The 13-year-old activist from Uttarakhand, who was on the list of BBC’s 100 most influential women globally in 2020, said in Dehradun that she is willing to go to any extent in support of Ravi. Sharing a personal moment when Ravi had extended help, she said her Twitter account was “restricted” last year and “Ravi helped me restore it”.

Environmentalists in Mumbai expressed dismay at young activists being held in preventive detention or facing arrest as a “mechanism to stop them from criticising or organising protests”.

“This is what they did at the time of the Aarey dispute,” said Zoru Bhathena who had campaigned against the previous Maharashtra government’s decision to hack trees at Aarey Colony.

“Young activists in their teens and twenties don’t often have the knowledge, wisdom or wherewithal to handle complicated issues. The system needs to take into account the age of passionate youths who mean well for the planet and start a conversation while youngsters need to use language that could critique the implication of a certain policy or move but not attack the motive in a way that’s defamatory and could land them on the wrong side of law,” said Afroz Shah, the man behind the clean-up of Mumbai's Versova beach.