The Delhi Police on Thursday said that they have not named Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, or anyone else, and the first information report only mentions the creators of a toolkit, reported ANI. Earlier in the day, there were multiple reports that the FIR was filed against Thunberg.
Delhi Special Commissioner of Police Praveer Ranjan said that the toolkit was under investigation. He said that the sections in the FIR include, 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting hatred amongst various communities on social/cultural/religious grounds) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. A toolkit, according to a social media campaigner, “is a booklet or document created to explain a cause or issue” that helps identify “approaches to address the issue from the grassroots level”.
“Preliminary enquiry has revealed that the toolkit in question appears to have been created by a pro-Khalistani organisation Poetic Justice Foundation,” Ranjan said, according to India Today. “A section of the documents titled ‘prior action’ delineates the following action plan.”
In her first tweet, posted on Wednesday, Thunberg wrote: “We stand in solidarity with the farmers protest in India”. In another tweet on Thursday, she wrote: “Here’s an updated toolkit by people on the ground in India if you want to help. (They removed their previous document as it was outdated.)”
Several pro-government social media handles have expressed outrage at the “toolkit” tweeted by the teenager in her message about the farmers’ protests in India. Many claimed the documented tweeted by Thunberg was evidence of a global conspiracy to attack India.
Also read: What does the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ cited as a sign of ‘conspiracy’ actually contain?
The controversy began on Wednesday after pop singer Rihanna tweeted in support of the farmers’ protest. Rihanna’s tweet drew global attention to the protests as prominent foreign personalities, including Thunberg, echoed her support for the farmers’ movement.
Following the international condemnation, India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement calling the tweets a “sensationalist” attempt by “vested groups” to intervene in India’s internal matters.
The ministry also warned about the dangers of the use of hashtags. It said that the comments were “neither accurate nor responsible”, claiming that the protests were by “a very small section of farmers” in parts of India.
Shortly after, Indian actors, celebrities and sportspersons, many of whom have long been silent on the farmer protests, began tweeting in one voice. Among them were cricketing stars Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri. They used hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether – both coined by the foreign ministry – and some wrote identical messages in support of the laws.
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