Washington Post Editorial: Arrest of this activist should put India’s ‘democracy’ title in question
ANY GOVERNMENT that would charge a 22-year-old climate and animal rights activist with sedition on the basis of a Google Doc cannot be readily described as a democracy. So the arrest this month of Disha Ravi by the Indian administration of Narendra Modi ought to ring alarm bells about whether a country that boasts of being the world’s largest democracy still deserves that title.
Ms. Ravi was released on bail Tuesday, 10 days after police raided her home in the city of Bangalore. Her alleged crime was to associate herself with Greta Thunberg and a Google Doc the Swedish activist produced suggesting ways to support mass protests by Indian farmers. For that, police charged Ms. Ravi with sedition — an offense that can be punished with years in prison — and conspiring to “spread disaffection” against the state. “If highlighting farmers’ protest globally is sedition, I am better in jail,” Ms. Ravi declared in court.
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