The All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Tuesday held a demonstration at the Delhi Police headquarters against the charges of sedition on climate change activist Disha Ravi. Terming the arrest as an “anti-democratic agenda”, protesters also submitted a memorandum demanding the release of Disha Ravi, Nodeep Kaur and others.
The memorandum submitted to the Delhi Police read, “In a highly condemnable act, the Delhi police has arrested Disha Ravi, 21-year-old Bengaluru-based environment activist for supporting the farmers’ movement. All activists such as Shiv Kumar and others, arrested for merely supporting the farmers’ movement must be released.”
The students’ organisation said, “The arrest of Disha Ravi on the basis of a ‘toolkit’ is an atrocious manifestation of RSS-BJP’s anti-democracy agenda. Toolkits have been a common tool of agitation and the malicious ploy to term it an ‘international conspiracy’ is BJP’s way of defaming the mass farmer protest.”
A public meeting was also held at the protest site. Madhurima Kundu, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University said, “The slander campaign against Ms. Disha is shameful. The false links to an “international conspiracy” is a prime toolkit of fascist politics.”
The AISA statement also termed the arrests as the “BJP’s prime strategy of defaming, repressing and distracting the historical farmers’ movement”.
