Nails In Our Young ‘Un’s Toolkit

The Delhi Police seem to have junked their motto Shanti, Seva, Nyay (peace, service and justice). It’s ‘catch them young’ now. Over the past weekend, a team of Delhi Police personnel went all the way to Banga­lore, braving risks posed by Covid, to ensure that their prized catch doesn’t fly off to Sweden and join Greta Thun­berg in the quest of protecting the earth against climate change and more. The brand ambassador apparently fashioned herself a peacenik, with an interest in environment conservation, but she couldn’t refuse the Delhi Police’s offer. And so, 22-year-old Disha Ravi, co-founder of the Indian chapter of Thunberg’s climate campaign—Fridays for Future--arrived in Delhi on Valentine’s Day; a posse of Delhi Police personnel in tow. Thanks to a local Delhi court, Ravi is now safely in police custody.

In keeping with tradition, compulsive contrarians aren’t happy--they’ve come down heavily against the Delhi Police and the local court. Opposition politicians, including Rahul Gandhi, P. Chidambaram, Mamata Banerjee, and a host of activists, lawyers and retired judges believe that the Delhi Police didn’t do their due diligence before hiring Ravi. The police believe that Ravi’s ability to indulge in seditious activity by inciting disaffection against the Centre makes her a suitable face for their ‘catch them young’ sigil. Those who argue she is a bad hire say none of Ravi’s actions, so far, proves her prowess at sedition. The ‘toolkit’ that Ravi allegedly helped prepare and disseminate to make a case for creation of an independent Khalistan and reportedly got Thunberg to endorse it, say the police’s detractors, even forgot to mention Khalistan!

Unfortunately for the Delhi Police, even Ravi hasn’t helped matters. Produced in a Delhi court, she broke down and told the court that she was being wrongly credited for creating the toolkit, that she was “just supporting farmers because they are our future and we all need to eat”. The pol­ice refused to believe Ravi’s version; the court, too, wasn’t inclined to doubt the veracity of her resume presented by the cops. After all, Ravi did admit to making “two edits” to the toolkit. The police are convinced that Ravi is simply being modest about her achievements at such a young age and claim to have evidence to prove that she not just has the required qualifications to create a WhatsApp group and draft the ‘toolkit’ document, but even has an international celebrity like Thunberg on her WhatsApp chat list.   

Attempts to derail the Delhi Police’s efforts to launch the ‘catch them young’ programme are still on, with many people demanding that Ravi be released from her contract. The police, however, believes it has its toolkit ready to keep its campaign on the tracks. In case this latest effort fails, the police may have to revert to other young celebrities like Umar Khalid, Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal, et al who have been under their custody for months. Though older to Ravi, they could prove to be useful back-ups.