Toolkit case: Disha Ravi finally breaks silence, says her autonomy violated, recalls days in Tihar Jail

Days after being granted bail in a sedition case by a Delhi court, young climate activist Disha Ravi on Saturday (March 14) finally broke her silence and said that “truth, no matter how long it takes, always reveals itself”. Slamming the media trial that followed after her arrest in the sedition case, Disha said that “my autonomy was violated… by seekers of TRPs”.

Disha took to Twitter to post a four-page statement “to present a narrative that is my own”. It may be recalled that Disha remained behind bars for 10 days after being arrested by Delhi Police on February 13 in connection with the Toolkit case. The controversial Toolkit was tweeted by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Recalling her experience at the Patiala House Courts where Delhi Police produced Disha after arresting her from Bengaluru. “As I stood in that courtroom, desperately searching for my lawyers, I came to terms with the fact that I would have to defend myself. I had no idea whether there was legal assistance available so when the judge asked me if I have anything to say, I decided to speak my mind. Before I knew it, I was sent to 5 days in police custody,” she said.

She began her statement saying: “All that is real feels far too unreal: Delhi’s infamous smog; the cyber police station; Deen Dayal Hospital; Patiala House Court; and Tihar Jail. In all the years that someone had asked me where I see myself in 5 years, I would have never answered ‘jail’ but here I was.”

“I kept asking myself what it felt like to be there at that particular moment in time, but I came back with no answers. I had coerced myself into believing that the only way I would be able to live through this was by tricking myself into thinking that this wasn’t happening to me — the police did not knock on my door on 13 February, 2021; they did not take my phone and laptop, and arrest me; they did not present me at Patiala House Court; the media personnel were not trying to find a place inside the room.”

Disha also mentioned the media trial that followed after her arrest. “It’s no surprise that in the days that followed, my autonomy was violated; my photographs were splashed all over the news; my actions were pronounced guilty — not in the court of law, but on flat screens by seekers of TRPs. I sat there, unaware of the many abstractions made of me in order to satiate their idea of me,” she said.

Recalling her days in Tihar Jail, Disha said: “At the end of the five days (19 February 2021), I was shifted to Judicial Custody for 3 days. In Tihar, I was aware of every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Locked in my cell, I wondered when it became a crime to think the most basic elements of sustenance on this planet were as much mine as theirs.”

In her statement, Ravi wrote that “most people knew little or nothing about climate activism or climate justice”.

“My grandparents, who are farmers, indirectly birthed my climate activism. I had to bear witness to how the water crisis affected them, but my work was reduced to tree plantation drives and clean-ups — which are important but not the same as struggling for survival. Climate Justice is about intersectional equity. It is about being radically inclusive of all groups of people, so that everyone has access to clean air, food and water,” she said.

“As a dear friend always says, “Climate Justice isn’t just for the rich and the white.” It’s a fight alongside those who are displaced; whose rivers have been poisoned; whose lands were stolen; who watched their houses get washed away every other season; and those who fight tirelessly for what are basic human rights,” she added.