Climate Activist Jailed in India as Government Clamps Down on Dissent (nytimes.com) 124
Before anyone outside her hometown knew her name, Disha Ravi spent four years raising awareness among young people in Bangalore about the effects of climate change. Now the 21-year-old activist is jailed in New Delhi. The allegation: She distributed a "tool kit" in the form of a Google Doc containing talking points and contact information for influential groups to drum up support for farmers who have been protesting against the Indian government for months. The New York Times: The document -- which the police say she shared with Greta Thunberg, the 18-year-old Swedish climate activist -- resembles the kind that grass-roots organizations around the world have used for years to campaign for their causes. But Ms. Ravi, the police contend, was using it to "spread disaffection against the Indian State." The arrest, the latest in a series of broader crackdown on activists, has triggered anger and disbelief among opposition politicians, student groups and lawyers, who say the government is using its law enforcement agencies to increasingly stifle dissent, in line with a broader deterioration of free speech in India. Ms. Ravi's arrest, they said, has raised the crackdown to a new level.
"There is a method to this madness," said Manshi Asher, a researcher with the nonprofit group Environmental Justice, "and a pattern that is so clearly telling us that those asking critical questions would be silenced." Ms. Ravi is being held under a stringent sedition law that has been used to criminalize everything from leading rallies to posting political messages on social media. Although she has not been formally charged, she is to spend five days in police custody. In its response to other contentious policies -- including citizenship laws that worked against Muslims, a clampdown on the disputed Kashmir region and the farmers' protests -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has resorted to arrests, stifling dissenting voices and blocking access to the internet. Groups that track internet freedom say India's has declined for a third consecutive year. For months, thousands of farmers, many of them Sikhs from the agricultural heartland state of Punjab, have camped out on the outskirts of New Delhi, protesting a slate of new laws that will dismantle a subsidy system that has for decades protected them from the vagaries of the free market.
"There is a method to this madness," said Manshi Asher, a researcher with the nonprofit group Environmental Justice, "and a pattern that is so clearly telling us that those asking critical questions would be silenced." Ms. Ravi is being held under a stringent sedition law that has been used to criminalize everything from leading rallies to posting political messages on social media. Although she has not been formally charged, she is to spend five days in police custody. In its response to other contentious policies -- including citizenship laws that worked against Muslims, a clampdown on the disputed Kashmir region and the farmers' protests -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has resorted to arrests, stifling dissenting voices and blocking access to the internet. Groups that track internet freedom say India's has declined for a third consecutive year. For months, thousands of farmers, many of them Sikhs from the agricultural heartland state of Punjab, have camped out on the outskirts of New Delhi, protesting a slate of new laws that will dismantle a subsidy system that has for decades protected them from the vagaries of the free market.
That could never happen $here... (Score:5, Funny)
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True. As we just saw a few weeks ago, Republicans worked hard to overthrow the will of the people, and even decided that a so-called president can entice their supporters to storm the seat of government and it's no big deal.
So yes, it could probably happen here if we continue to let them get away with these violations of the Constitution and rule of law.
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What alternate universe did you come from?
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I just don't want to see the eyesores.
But I'm convinced it's never gonna get fixed on Slashdot, and I'm exploring a new venue that seems better. But if they were going to fix it, my favorite imaginary pie-in-the-sky solution approach would involve self-discrediting. After earning sufficient negativity, the identity would start getting challenges, especially for replies. Something like "Your reputation is so low that this person won't see your reply. Do you want to go somewhere else to comment on the topic,
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Your "favorite imaginary pie-in-the-sky solution approach" is called social credit. You can move to a country that already has that stuff on the books to see if that is what you really want.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^-1
Just checking the bot... (Score:1)
SNAFU...
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^-2
Here in America (Score:5, Informative)
Climate Change scientists we just ignore.
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We also (temporarily) jail doctors who try to make sure that every dose in a vial gets used [msn.com]. We do fire them for making our bean counters look bad.
I live here because I was born here (Score:3)
It doesn't seem to be working all that well, but I don't know an alternative.
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No, he's saying most western nations won't allow Americans to immigrate there unless they have advanced degrees or are in the wealthy elite.
And right now, most western nations wont even allow Americans to visit, because they don't want plague rats from third world shitholes that in spite of their lack of access to higher education, lack of affordable healthcare, rampant income equality, soaring poverty rates and a declining lifespan think they are somehow "first world".
Furthermore the problems of most nations (Score:2)
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Let me ask you a question: why do you hate America? >p>
Like the rest of the seditionists, he started hating America when I voted for President Obama.
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No different than the US arresting journalists and whistleblowers by the train-load.
What journalists have been arrested in America?
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https://pressfreedomtracker.us... [pressfreedomtracker.us]
Re:That could never happen $here... (Score:5, Informative)
https://pressfreedomtracker.us... [pressfreedomtracker.us]
According to your link, so far in 2021, three journalists were briefly detained in chaotic situations but quickly released when they identified themselves.
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A lot different from the USA (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because the USA is far from perfect, it is a nasty error to confuse it with authoritarian regimes.
India prides itself on its democracy. But Modi and his BJP Hindu Nationalists have been heading to a dangerous place. I hope the people of India realize that.
(Modi himself appears to be uncorruptable, which is a first for an Indian politician. But that does not alone make him a good leader.)
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Modi appears "uncorruptable"?
Why? Because he came already corrupted?
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Garden varieties of corruption are purely venal. But there are other ways to pay off a fanatic.
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You didn't ask me any questions, unless you're also posting under koxabon707, which seems like the case.
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So you're an ageist, a racist and a nationalist.
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Re: That could never happen $here... (Score:2)
Fifty more cents for you! Keep it up!
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He can't. If he does that, he'll be broken up for spare parts.
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Re:That could never happen $here... (Score:5, Insightful)
We're one good drama away from jailing people for 'misgendering.' [quora.com]
One sign that we are doing well, is people who can't find anything real to complain about, so they complain about problems that don't actually exist but may possibly happen on a hypothetical future timeline.
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so they complain about problems that don't actually exist
Like "misgendering?"
Re: That could never happen $here... (Score:2)
Where is that a problem?
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Re: That could never happen $here... (Score:2)
So you have no gripes about it then, and if I ever met a person that wants to be called he, I guess I'd call him a he. So it's a non issue.
See how civil things get when we don't build straw men?
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We're one good drama away from jailing people for 'misgendering.' [quora.com]
One sign that we are doing well, is people who can't find anything real to complain about, so they complain about problems that don't actually exist but may possibly happen on a hypothetical future timeline.
We already jail people for forwarding memes.
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We already jail people for forwarding memes.
Who was jailed for forwarding a meme?
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Oh bugger off. Losing your twitter account for repeatedly breaking their terms of service is not even remotely like being thrown in jail for sharing a google doc.
Why spend so much energy being stressed about stupid shit.
Re: That could never happen $here... (Score:2)
The point I was making is that the loss of free speech can happen anywhere (hence the use of "$here") and "anywhere" isn't confined to government restrictions on speech. The social boundaries on speech have become islands, which has resulted in isolating society, rather than a broad (and in some areas uncomfortable) shared
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Non-Western countries sick of our NGOs (Score:1, Troll)
Or another way to look at it is that the majority of the world is fed up with a bunch of besuited monkey type know-it-alls being parachuted into their country with a lot of cash to start trying to build up movements that answer to foreign funders and governments.
FFS, stop pretending that our NGOs are spreading peace, love and democracy. They're nothing more than extensions of our ruling class that wield soft power so we can strut like fucking peacocks sniffing our own farts about how we're not imperialists.
Re:Non-Western countries sick of our NGOs (Score:4, Informative)
Disha Ravi is a native-born Indian citizen, not a foreign parachutist.
Believe it or not, some people in India actually care about our planet. It is their planet too.
Missing the point completely (Score:2, Troll)
She's the local arm of the foreign-backed movement the Indian government is suppressing from having influence in India.
Believe it or not, some people in India actually eat cows. The meat is just as good for them too.
That's the sort of response that deserves.
Re:Missing the point completely (Score:4, Insightful)
Foreign NGOs are not the problem.
Populist right-wing theocratic nationalisms are. We have seen it with Erdogan in Turkey, Netanyahu pandering to the ultra-orthodox in Israel, Vox in Spain, tele-evangelicals hijacking the Republican party in the USA, Abbott's regressive catholicism in Australia, etc.
Oh, and Modi in India.
Self-righteous charlatans can get away with a whole host of things when they have 'god' on their side.
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Foreign NGOs are never _the_ problem, they're there to make sure problems happen so that the local population can be exploited.
The self-interested can get away with everything if they feel they are the socially accepted oppressors.
"world's largest democracy" ? (Score:5, Interesting)
That slogan lives on in this century despite the mind boggling untruth of it. The sad thing is that around the world the voices of ordinary people are increasingly silenced. Even in the US. Oh, but we have social media, you say. Yes, all the better to obfuscate you, my dear. You hear no truth from your government and they don't hear you at all.
Re:"world's largest democracy" ? (Score:4, Insightful)
The fall of the greats.
The world's largest democracy throws its citizens in jail.
The world's greatest democracy attempts to overturn its own election.
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> The world's largest democracy throws its citizens in jail.
Mmm... might want to qualify that. Pretty much every country in the world throws at least some of its citizens in jail. Not sure about Sealand or the other micronations.
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No I really don't. Not everyone is an autist that reads a sentence in isolation ignoring the context in which it is made. If you managed to read my comment without understanding what is being discussed, why and who I suggest you re-evaluate how you read a webpage.
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The Economist categorizes countries as "full democracies", "flawed democracies", "hybrid regimes" and "authoritarian regimes".
The most populous "full democracy" at present is the United Kingdom. Until a few years ago the US was the largest "full democracy" but it has fallen just below the line due to low levels of public trust in government (this may happen to the UK in the next report for the same reason).
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What about Japan and Germany? Is the table in Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] out of date and they've both dropped a category?
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Even in the greatest democracy of all time, the US, studies have shown that the will of the voters are implemented pretty close to never.
At least the Indian government is able to identify psy-ops done by globalists and strike back at those actively participating in them. That "farmers uprising" thing stink worse than any street in india.
How inefficient (Score:2)
Activism outside the west (Score:1)
This is just a sample of what’s really happe (Score:1)
Not the whole story (Score:2, Interesting)
Apparently, no one has a problem with Disha's climate related work.
The issue at hand is that she built this toolkit in cooperation with known separatists. This is what got her into trouble with the authorities. And the funny thing is, she apparently knew that she was going to get into trouble and was breaking the law.
It's that old adage "Choose your friends wisely..".
Read coverage here : https://timesofindia.indiatime... [indiatimes.com]
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Actually usefull comments seem to hardly get any attention on Slashdot anymore.
The ticle of the story is so full of journalism tactics to make the right look bad.
Summary needs some context (Score:1)
Investigating this a bit further (the linked article was paywalled) the woman is charged for sedition, promoting hatred among groups and criminal conspiracy specifically for this violent demonstration:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Almost 400 people were injured in the riots. The Red Fort which has a huge symbolic meaning (look it up) for most Indians was overrun and desecrated by the rioters and religious (Sikh) flags were hoisted at the Red Fort.
From my understanding she did not directly incite sedition
oh, Modi is screwing up . (Score:2)
THis is going to backfire on his work to help India.
India, ask yourself again.. (Score:1)
Change is difficult, isn it?
This is what happens when the monkeys rules (Score:1)
Score: -5 (probably, IDK, downvote the dissenter?) (Score:1)
Re:Lets review farmers protest and disha ravi arre (Score:4)
Your famed courts with multiple century backlogs?
We have a right to a speedy trial. Do you?
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Re: Lets review farmers protest and disha ravi arr (Score:2)
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Your government is neither.
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US gov't has at least 2 big defects: the Electoral College (EC) and rules that leave us with only 2 viable parties. EC made sense when the population ratio differences between states were smaller, but the ratio's have gotten much larger since the EC was formed. Our Presidency should also be split into a domestic President and a foreign affairs President.
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Im not sure that splitting the presidency would help all that much. However, one of the biggest things we need to do, along with the above, is pass several amendments, of which 1 would be Lessig's public funding for campaigns.
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That's indeed another good point to focus on. Allowing the rich to dump in big campaign money is turning us into a plutocracy. The rich essentially purchase laws. Included in that is limits on "corporate personhood". That's a dangerous concept when taken too far.
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That too. Our "rent a politician" system is ridiculous.
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America screams about the unethical politicians in Europe, but my god, we have out and out legal bribery going on.
If Biden does not change things soon, My wife will likely accept Boeing's push to send us over to Germany or Sweden.
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The President likely can't change that alone. It may even require a Constitutional amendment to deactivate the Citizens United ruling, and Constitutional amendments are very hard to pass under current conditions.
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Seriously, how would you run a nation like this, in which it has serious communication issues due to differing cultures (oddly, 1 of the few positives of England's control of India for so long, was bringing a single language there, so that governments and businesses can communicate ), mass poverty, multiple religious warring going on between Hindu and Muslims, trying to remove the caste system, etc. etc. etc. ?
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You're saying that most farmers in India are rich?
Re: Lets review farmers protest and disha ravi arr (Score:2)
Most farmers are not protesting either. Filthy rich land owners whose family live in Canada (and USA) and who use migrant laborers from poorer states are protesting because the law says the farmers are free to sell their produce anywhere and that cuts into the filthy rich land owners who maintain government enforced monopoly on local food supply.
If you think I am joking or lying let me tell you these "farmers" buy a new BMW every year and pay 0 tax.
Then, it turns out, the terrorist groups currently living i
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Buddha never became a successful leader of India.
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Ummm, he did? Where did you find the illogical and revisionist crap that says he wasn't successful in India?
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terrorist groups currently living in western countries
WHat terrorist groups would these be and where are they living.
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You can start by reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I mean, if you don't know what that is there is absolutely no reason to believe anybody has any right to think themselves capable of having a discussion on this topic.
The relevant quotes:
"The Sikh diaspora also increased their efforts to build institutions to maintain and propagate their ethnonational heritage. A major objective of these educational efforts was to publicize a different face to the non Sikh international community who regarded the Sik
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India is democracy. Go fuck yourself. The government of India has a full mandate from the people - and it is the second time.
Oops. You got exposed.
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Login and let us know your identity Mr. Troll
Re: Lets review farmers protest and disha ravi ar (Score:2)
Thanks, that's bang on. i was feeling too lazy to type & explain that, but too irritated to let it go.
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No. Which fake news website are you reading these days? Daily Khalistan?
You are right. They also buy Mercedes. And Porsche. And probably a "cheap" SUV in a country where the average income is 5 dollars per day.
Did you really ask why rich people need money if they a
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According to CNN, this is the document she was sharing [cryptpad.fr]. I suggest everybody should go have a quick look at it.
In brief, it tells people to tweet, call the government representatives who supposedly work for them, sign petitions, and go to protests. It has a bunch of political rhetoric at the top that doesn't even mention any names, let alone "defame" anybody.
Only a worthless piece of shit shill would try to pretend that that was "seditious" . And only an incompetent shill would do such an obvious job of it.
Re: Good (Score:1, Flamebait)
OK Boomer
Nice to know your type is still triggered by little girls
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Whenever anyone responds with "ok boomer", you know that have absolutely no meaningful retort. You think it makes you sound edgy, but the reality is it clearly marks you as being completely stumped.
Re: Good (Score:3)
If that was the whole comment, you would have a point.
But you don't.
Here's a nickel, kid, buy yourself a more legitimate assertion.
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The rest was a childish insult signifying nothing of value.
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The rest was a childish insult signifying nothing of value.
If you are literally angry at a young woman for trying to make people aware of the extent and severity of climate change, you literally do not get a say in what is or is not childish. At least, not among people capable of reason.