NEW DELHI (AP) – To her friends, Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, was deeply concerned about her future in a world with rising temperatures. He 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 condemns life imprisonment.
His alleged crime: sharing a manual online was intended to increase support for farmers ’protests lasting months on Twitter.
“If highlighting farmers’ global protest is a sedition, I’m better off (out) in prison, ”he told the court two weeks ago.
She was released after 10 days in detention. Her mother told reporters in Bengaluru, Ravi’s hometown, that the case “has strengthened our faith in the system” and said her daughter was strong and brave.
Going for activists is not new in India, but the Ravi saga has caused fear and anxiety. Observers say what happened to Ravi, a middle-class, urban young woman, came home to many Indians, who suddenly feared they might be jailed for sharing something on social media. Criminal lawyers also point to a frequent concern about the way sedition is invoked. Many say the checks and balances used by lower courts, often overflowing with cases, are fading.
The incident has raised questions about India’s democracy, and critics denounce it as the latest attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to silence dissent and criminalize it.
“They aimed at someone who was not usually the object of the Hindu right: a young woman 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 is that they can go after anyone.”
In early February, Ravi, who is part of the Indian wing of Fridays for Future, a global climate change movement founded by Greta Thunberg, was charged with sedition for allegedly compiling and editing a Google document explaining how to lead term a campaign on social media. Its aim was to help farmers, encamped outside New Delhi since November, to expand the protests that have convulsed India, making it one of Modi’s biggest challenges.
Farmers, mostly from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, want a repeal of laws passed last year that say they will favor large business farms and devastate their incomes. The government says laws are needed to modernize Indian agriculture.
Many of the protesters belong to India’s minority Sikh religion, but their complaints are based on economic, not religious, issues.
Police said the document shared by Ravi spread misinformation, “tarnished India’s image” and may have prompted farmers to become violent on January 26, when clashes with police left hundreds of wounded and a dead protester.
The Modi government has increasingly attacked sedition against critics, intellectuals, activists, filmmakers, students and journalists, with police arguing that words or actions of dissent make them a threat to national security. While convictions are rare, police do not need an arrest warrant, which makes it an easy law to invoke, said Chitranshul Sinha, a lawyer who has written a book on the history of the law of sedition. .
An accused person is often in custody until the case is taken to a higher court, as many lower courts do not have the power to dismiss such cases, he said.
The case has left a terrifying effect on activists, with some focus on a culture of deep intimidation, sometimes even before the arrest.
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 office of the Prime Minister to draw attention to a faulty road in his neighborhood and called on his local representatives not to take any action. He shared the letter on his social media, which quickly went viral and landed him inside a police station, he said.
“They (the police) tried to scare me, saying they could accuse me of sedition,” Gowda said.
They let him go. Police said his actions had a “political motivation,” but denied the threat to 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 the peaceful demonstration is sometimes questioned by police even when participating in small-scale civic protests in Bengaluru.
“Bullying comes in many forms. The data on the arrested activists do not show the full picture: they are much more widespread, ”he said.
Last week, Washington-based Freedom House downgraded India from “free” to “partially free” in its annual Democracy Survey. The fall reflects “a multi-year pattern in which the Hindu nationalist government and its allies have presided over the rise of violence and discriminatory policies affecting the Muslim population and have followed the repression of expressions of dissent by the media. , academics, civil society groups and protesters “. he said in a report.
The report also highlighted how the laws of the colonial era are continually invoked to punish criticism from ordinary citizens.
The government described the report as “misleading, incorrect and out of place”.
The use of sedition is the responsibility of state governments and their authorities who try to preserve “public order,” he said. The government “attaches the utmost importance to the safety of all residents in the country, including journalists.”
According to historian Guha, India’s democracy has been in its worst state since the Emergence of the 1970s, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended elections, halted civil rights, imprisoned the political opponents and censored the press.
He said previous governments have also tried to control independent institutions, but that there has always been “an even partial recovery”.
“I fear that this time our democratic traditions cannot recover from this assault,” Guha said.