Disha Ravi’s arrest: BJP defends police action

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

While Opposition and social activists condemned the arrest of 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi for her alleged involvement in a “toolkit” related to the ongoing farmers’ protest, BJP leaders defended the police action, saying that she is an adult and responsible for her actions and in mind the “nature of her crime”.

BJP general secretary B L Santhosh claimed that “unravelling of the toolkit episode will be the beginning of the unfoldment of the anarchist lobby”.

“They bit more than want they could chew on January 26…. As the great drama unfolds many anarchists rallying behind Disha Ravi, the 21-year-old, sole bread winner, daughter of single mother, climate change activists will run for cover. WhatsApp groups, editing option and conversations will unravel many a characters,” he said in a series of tweets. “Not one anarchist ready to answer the question...How 21-year-old student got access to edit Toolkit,” he also questioned.

Party spokespersons Sambit Patra and Gaurav Bhatia maintained that a criminal is a criminal and gender and his or her age is immaterial if the person is not a juvenile. “Besides, she should have known the antecedents of a man like Mo Dhaliwal,” BJP leaders added.

“Kasab was 21 when he attacked Mumbai,” said Bhatia, adding that “supporting farmers is not a crime but conspiring against India and inciting others is”.

Sambit Patra also said today's press conference by the police on Disha Ravi’s arrest "has totally exposed the nefarious conspiracies of the break India forces to demean the integrity of India".

"These people not only created a toolkit which perpetrated the January 26 disruption, but also collided with a banned organisation 'Poetic Justice Foundation' to promulgate the Khalistani design to belittle India.

"As far as the Opposition particularly the Congress is concerned, in an attempt to attack PM Narendra Modi they have always stood with anti-India forces.

"Astonishingly for the Opposition Bharat Ratnas like Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar can be investigated but 'break India forces' should receive protection under the garb of 'freedom of expression'," he said.

"These parties were crying arrest the perpetrators on January 26, but today when they are arrested the same Congress cries foul," Patra said.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also said age has nothing to do with the crime. “If age is the criteria then Param Veer Chakra Second Lt Arun Khetarpal, martyred at 21 is who I am proud of. Not some toolkit propagandists,” he said. “While India was making PPE kit for the world, these people were making toolkit against Indians,” he added.

Meanwhile, BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya accused the Left for “using young impressionable minds as cannon fodder for their deranged politics for a long time”. From “JNU to Jamia, AMU to Nadwa and now Disha Ravi, are all part of their sinister plot,” he said.