Greta Thunberg may have let the cat out of the bag now, but the planning had been in the works since November 2020. Some of the controversial material can be found on AskIndiaWhy.com website which is run by Poetic Justice Foundation, a Vancouver, Canada based organization.
@prashanthamine
Mumbai: The deleted Toolkit posted on her twitter handle @GretaThunberg had all the tools to disrupt the Republic Day parade on January 26 and foment more trouble in the garb of farmer’s protests in New Delhi. Within an hour after posting the Toolkit on her twitter handle, the Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg deleted it late on night of February 3. She reposted another version of the Toolkit on Thursday which too further raised the hackles. The controversial nature of some of the campaign material prompted Delhi Police to lodge First Information Report (FIR) against the Sweden based environment activist.
There are some key documents in the Toolkit that include – “Global-Farmers-Strike-First-Wave-SCHEDULE-LINKS-Google-Docs”, “Read Me_ Instructions, Templates, Copywriting”, “Key Messages”, “Narrative” amongst a few documents. The Toolkit also contains detailed instructions on how to carry out protests in India, at Indian embassies and consulates around the world, sign three petitions – to the President of India, to the United Nations and to British Members of Parliament.
In the Key Messages material what strikes is this – “A Global Day of Action (January 26) to “AskIndiaWhy”… The focus is to disrupt Republic Day celebrations to call attention to the farmers action, encouraging global citizens and the Indian diaspora to #askindiawhy”.
The Toolkit is in such great detail that it has readymade Templates for Press Releases, Posters, Banners, # hash-tags like #askindiawhy, twitter handles, on how to and where to upload protest photos and videos, how to engage with the media, how to activate the press, collect media hits, social media templates, campaign materials, media kits, E-mail addresses amongst others. All that needs to be done is to “fill-in the blanks”. It even has “A Guide on Mental Health During Activism”.
But what has raised the eyebrows of the security agencies and others is the kind of language and terminology used to describe India and the government. Words like “Broken Democracy”, “Smashing Dissent”, “Operation Bluestar”, “Divest and write to the company”, “hit them where it hurts”, “stop exports of pesticides to India” amongst others.
Also Read: Biden to reverse major Trump decisions on first day in office
The entire campaign had a timeline and timing laid out for when to execute which plan, right from launching a “Digital Strike” to “TweetStorm”, Zoom Sessions, XR Global Insta Live, Physical action of protesting at Indian embassy, petitioning government representatives, elected representatives, the UN and launching signature campaign drives for the three petitions.
In terms of Physical actions rallies and protest demonstrations were to be held in the USA, UK, Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Italy, France, Ireland and Australia.
But what is significant to note here is that most of the activities were being held since November 2020. The three contentious farm bills were passed in the Parliament in September 2020. Interestingly enough PJF was registered as a federal corporation in Vancouver, Canada and incorporated on March 23, 2020. The AskIndiaWhy.com website timeline suggests it was active since early January 2021.
Some of the campaign material is to be found at AskIndiaWhy.com website which is run by Canada based Poetic Justice Foundation whose director’s include – Hardeep Singh Sahota, Monminder Singh @ Mo Dhaliwal and Sabrina Sohi. Most of the content material is on abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2020 New Delhi riots amongst other materials.
In the revised Toolkit, an appeal has been made to sign three petitions – one is addressed to Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Ministers Office (PMO), President of India, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah with a plea to abolish the three farm bills and support the protesting farmers.
The second petition on “freedom to express dissent is a key pillar of democracy” has been addressed to the United Nations and UN Secretary General and third one being addressed to UK MP’s with a plea to stop export of pesticides to India and agricultural technology to India.
As per the timeline given in the Toolkit, social media activities and more protests planned on February 6, February 13 and February 14.
In a statement issued the Delhi Police stated “Delhi police has taken cognizance of a “Toolkit Document” found on a social media platform that predates and indicates a copycat execution of a conspiracy behind the 26th Jan violence. The call was to wage economic, social, cultural and regional war against India. A criminal case against the creators of the “Toolkit Document” has been registered – Delhi Police”.
