Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that the “toolkit” tweeted by Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg in her posts expressing support for the farmers’ protests have “revealed a lot”, ANI reported.
He also defended the foreign ministry’s official statement countering tweets on the matter by Thunberg, pop singer Rihanna and other international personalities.
“We have to wait and see what else comes out,” Jaishankar said. “There was a reason why the foreign ministry reacted to statements which some celebrities gave out on matters on which they obviously didn’t know very much.”
On Thursday, Thunberg had tweeted a link to the “toolkit” saying: “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 (They removed their previous document as it was outdated.)”. Following this, the Delhi Police lodged a First Information Report against its creators, after pro-government social media handles expressed outrage claiming that the “toolkit” was evidence of a global conspiracy to attack India. The FIR included sections 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”.
The “toolkit” tweeted by Thunberg, explained that it was “meant to enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers protests in India to better understand the situation and make decisions on how to support the farmers based on their own analysis”.
It also listed suggestions on some “urgent actions” that sympathisers to the matter could undertake to show their support. These included hashtags like #FarmersProtest and #StandWithFarmers, suggestions to call or email government representatives or sign online petitions and organising “on-ground action” near Indian embassies or government offices on February 13 or 14.
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