NEW DELHI (AP) – For her friends, Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, was most 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 accused her of sedition, a colonial-era law that carries a life sentence.
Her alleged crime: sharing an online textbook meant to increase support for farmers’ protests for months on Twitter.
“If highlighting farmers’ protests globally is a sedition, they are better off (in condition) in prison,” 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 courageous.
Pursuing activists is not new in India, but Ravi’s saga has sparked fear and anxiety. Observers say that what happened to Ravi – a young, middle-class, urban woman – hit home for many Indians, who suddenly feared they might be imprisoned because they shared something on social media. Criminal lawyers also indicate a disturbing frequency in the way the case is invoked. Many say that the checks and balances used by lower courts, often overwhelmed by cases, are fading.
The incident has raised questions about India’s democracy, and critics have denounced it as the latest attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to deactivate and criminalize dissent.
“They targeted someone who is not usually targeted by the Hindu right – a young girl from southern India who does not have a Muslim name and is not linked to left-wing student politics,” said prominent historian Ramachandra Guha. “The message they wanted to send was that I could go after anyone.”
In early February, Ravi, part of the Indian wing of Fridays for Future, a global climate change movement founded by Greta Thunberg, was accused of sedition for compiling and editing a Google document explaining how to run a campaign. socializing. His aim was to help farmers, who have been camping outside New Delhi since November, amplify the protests that have rocked India, one of Modi’s biggest challenges.
Farmers, most of whom come from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, want the repeal of laws passed last year that are said to favor large farms and destroy their incomes. The government says laws are needed to modernize Indian agriculture.
Many of the protesters come from India’s minority Sikh religion – but their grievances are rooted in economic issues, not religious ones.
Police say the document Ravi shared misinformed the information, “tarnished India’s image” and may have prompted farmers to become violent on January 26, when clashes with police left hundreds injured and one protester dead.
Modi’s government has increasingly increased its opposition to critics, intellectuals, activists, filmmakers, students and journalists, with police claiming that words or actions of dissent pose a threat to national security. Even if convictions remain rare, police do not need an arrest warrant, which makes it an easy law to invoke, said Chitranshul Sinha, a lawyer who wrote a book on the history of sedition law.
An accused person is often in custody until the case is taken over by a high court because many lower courts are not empowered to dismiss such cases, he said.
The case left a freezing effect on activists, with some highlighting a culture of intimidation that is deep, sometimes even before an arrest is made.
Mukund Gowda, a 25-year-old public works activist and youth leader for 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 on a faulty road in his neighborhood and called his local representatives not to take action. He shared the letter on his social networks, which quickly went viral and landed him in a police station, he said.
“They (the police) tried to scare me, saying they could accuse me of sedition,” Gowda said.
He was released. Police said his actions were “politically motivated”, but denied threatening him. The experience worried him and his family. He stopped posting on social media and took a step back from activism for a few months.
Another activist, Tara Krishnaswamy, said peaceful protesters were sometimes questioned by police even when participating in small-scale civic protests in Bengaluru.
“Bullying comes in many forms. The data for the arrested activists does not show the complete picture – they are much more widespread “, she said.
Washington-based Freedom House last week downgraded India from “free” to “partially free” in its annual democracy poll. The decline reflects “a multi-year model in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over growing violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and sought to crack down on dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups and protesters.” he said in a report.
The report also highlighted how colonial-era laws are continually invoked to punish criticism from ordinary citizens.
The government called the report “misleading, incorrect and out of place”.
The use of the headquarters is the responsibility of state governments and their authorities who are trying to maintain “public order,” he said. The government “attaches the utmost importance to the safety and security of all the country’s inhabitants, including journalists.”
According to historian Guha, India’s democracy is in its worst state of emergency since the 1970s, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended elections, restricted civil rights, shut down political opponents and censored the press.
He said that previous governments had also tried to control independent institutions, but that there had always been “a recovery, even a partial one”.
“I am afraid that this time our democratic traditions will not be able to recover after this assault,” Guha said.