In the charges and counter charges surrounding the arrest of “climate activist” Disha Ravi, a point that is being missed is the destruction of India’s “chai and yoga image” being one of the aims of the controversial toolkit shared by Greta Thunberg. Even if Disha Ravi is given the benefit of the doubt in the case and even if Delhi Police is accused of being unnecessarily heavy handed with the “activist”, what is really baffling is the involvement of a supposedly educated and aware young Indian woman with a piece of document that is clear about its intention—besmirch India’s image globally. Whether Disha Ravi’s actions are seditious or not, is for the Delhi Police to prove and the courts to decide. The police will have to build a watertight case against her to justify her arrest. If it cannot, it will be accused of indulging in vendetta and will end up spoiling its own reputation. But what should be a matter of concern for all sane-minded Indians is that there are some in this country—young and educated—who are okay with destroying India’s image globally. Disha Ravi, who claims to have edited just two sentences in the toolkit, would surely have known what the document was about, as else she would not be urging—according to the WhatsApp chat released by the police—Greta Thunberg to delete the toolkit, for it could result in the invoking of the stringent UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) against her and her associates.
There are two ways of looking at the matter. First, such rhetoric has been the hallmark of the ultra left in recent times, even though history shows that in the early 1960s even the “mainstream” Communists were going around Bengal claiming China’s chairman was their chairman, and that too around the time when the India-China war was being fought in 1962. Much water has flown under the bridge since then and no comrade worth his or her Das Kapital would indulge in such foolish rhetoric in 2021. However, the ultra left ideology continues till this date and Naxalism/Maoism is a manifestation of it. Also, there is no denying the presence of this “ultra-virus” on certain campuses of the country, however limited be their influence. To cut a long story short, is Disha Ravi’s case one of ultra left radicalization? Or—and now the second point—is it a case where the hatred for one man, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is so immense that it has become acceptable to damage even the nation’s reputation just because it is ruled by PM Modi’s government? A caveat: the two points mentioned here do not necessarily exist in silos but can, and often do overlap. To explain the second point, mention must be made of an article published this week in a well-known American news magazine. In a rant against the Modi government, the author of the article, who has an Indian name, literally begs the Joe Biden administration to cut ties with India, and wonders for how long President Biden will endorse the lie that India is a democracy. The outrageous rant is a blatant attempt to drive a wedge between India and the US and would have been junked as arrant nonsense, but for the “legitimacy” it gets because it is published by a very important American news weekly. That a breach in India-US relations can be bad for India, and for the US as well, at a time when alliances are being firmed up against China, is of no concern to the author. All that matters is India must be punished for voting for Mr Modi. This hatred is insane.
It’s extremely problematic when government and nation are conflated, and are opposed in a manner that can be interpreted as subversion of national interest. This piece is not saying that such attempts are seditious, for it is beyond the ability of a few self-important activists, or authors, to hurt India. But the problem that needs to be acknowledged is of impressionable young minds—Disha, not the author of the rant—falling prey to abject propaganda to the extent that they lose their ability to think independently, which seems to have been the case with the young woman from Bengaluru. She comes across as clueless about the three farm laws and appears more than willing to buy into the most outrageous propaganda. Hence, it’s time to expose the forces that are brainwashing the young. Also, the young must be made to understand that they are mere tools in a political warfare that is being conducted against India by interests inimical to the country, and no Greta Thunberg or her ilk will come to save them when they are in trouble. The need of the hour is conversation and education. Else, misdirected activism will finish the future of many a young people.