NEW DELHI (AP) – Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, was very worried about her future in a world of rising temperatures. She was attracted to veganism, enjoyed watching Netflix and spent time on social media.
But her life changed last month when she became a household name in India, dominating the headlines after police charged her with rioting, a law from the colonial era that imposed a sentence of life in prison.
Her alleged crime: sharing an online handbook meant to garner support for months-long agricultural protests on Twitter.
“If there is a riot to highlight farmers’ protests worldwide, I’m better off in jail,” she said in court two weeks ago.
She was released after 10 days in custody. Her mother told reporters in Ravi’s hometown of Bengaluru that the case ‘strengthened our faith in the system’ and called her daughter strong and brave.
Caring for activists is not new in India, but Ravi’s saga has unleashed anxiety and distress. Observers say what happened to Ravi – a young, middle-class, urban woman – hit many Indians, who suddenly feared being jailed for sharing something on social media. Criminal lawyers also point to a worrying frequency in the call for sedition. Many say checks and balances used by lower courts, often overwhelmed by cases, are fading.
The incident has raised questions about India’s democracy, with critics calling it the latest attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to curb and criminalize differences of opinion.
“They targeted someone who is not usually targeted by the Hindu right – a young girl from South India, who does not have a Muslim name and is not linked to left-wing student politics,” said leading historian Ramachandra Guha said. “The message they wanted to send was that they could take care of anyone.”
Earlier in February, Ravi, part of the Indian wing of Fridays for the Future, a global climate change movement founded by Greta Thunberg, was charged with rioting for allegedly compiling and modifying a Google document explaining how social media campaign can be run. It was aimed at helping farmers, who have been camping outside New Delhi since November, to intensify protests that have disrupted India, which is one of Modi’s biggest challenges.
The farmers, the majority of whom hail from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, want the laws passed last year to be rejected that will benefit large businesses and destroy their income. The government says the laws are necessary to modernize Indian agriculture.
Many of the protesters are from the Sikh religion of India but their grievances are rooted in economic issues, not religious.
According to police, the document that Ravi was distributing misrepresented ‘the image of India’, possibly inciting the farmers to become violent on January 26, when clashes with police killed hundreds of injured and one protester.
The Modi government has increasingly incited riots against critics, intellectuals, activists, filmmakers, students and journalists, and police say words or actions of inconsistency pose a threat to national security. Although convictions remain rare, police do not need an arrest warrant, making it an easy law to call, said Chitranshul Sinha, a lawyer who has written a book on the history of sedition law.
An accused is often detained until the case is brought before a high court, as many lower courts do not have the power to dismiss such cases.
The case has left a chilling effect on activists, while some put a culture of intimidation that runs deep, sometimes even before an arrest is made, in the spotlight.
Mukund Gowda, a 25-year-old public works activist and youth leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party in Bengaluru, was questioned by local police for almost a full day last year after writing a letter to the prime minister’s office to draw attention to a faulty road in his neighborhood and called his local representatives because they did not take action. He shared the letter on his social media, which quickly went viral and landed him in a police station, he said.
“They (the police) tried to scare me and said they could charge me with rioting,” Gowda said.
He was let go. Police said his actions were “politically motivated” but denied that they threatened him. The experience made him and his family anxious. He stopped posting on social media and took a step back from activism for a few months.
Another activist, Tara Krishnaswamy, said peaceful protesters are sometimes interrogated by the police, even when participating in small-scale civilian protests in Bengaluru.
‘The intimidation comes in many forms. The data for arrested activists does not show the complete picture – it is much more pervasive, “she said.
Freedom House, based in Washington, downgraded India in its annual democracy survey last week from “free” to “partially free”. The decline reflects “a pattern of more years in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have perpetuated the escalating violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and the media, academics, civil society groups and protesters” followed a struggle against expressions of disagreement, ” it said in a report.
The report also highlighted how laws throughout the colonial era were constantly called upon to punish criticism by ordinary citizens.
The government calls the report ‘misleading, wrong and misplaced’.
The use of sedition is the responsibility of state governments and their authorities who try to maintain ‘public order’. The government “attaches the utmost importance to the safety and security of all residents of the country, including journalists.”
According to Guha, the historian, India’s democracy is in its worst state since the emergency in the 1970s, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended elections, seized civil rights, sent political opponents to jail and censored the press.
He said that previous governments had also tried to control independent institutions, but that a recovery, even in part, had always followed.
“I fear that these democratic traditions cannot recover from this assault this time,” Guha said.