“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”. Greta Thunberg charging at the world leaders while delivering a speech at the 2019 United Nations climate action summit in New York, US. She became a household name overnight worldwide, more so when she took upon the then President of US, Donald Trump.
This time again Greta Thunberg is in news, but for wrong reasons. Her tweets and re-tweets have created a storm in the Indian Parliament. Thunberg tweeted: “I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #FarmersProtest.”Thunberg also said she had deleted the previous tweet and toolkit because it had since then been “updated by people on the ground in India”. The new toolkit she tweeted aims to “enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers protests in India to better understand the situation and make decisions on how to support the farmers based on their own analysis”. The toolkit asks those interested to tweet their support to Indian farmers. “Use hashtag #FarmersProtest #StandWithFarmers. Call/Email any of your govt representatives and ask them to take action, Sign online Petitions and take action to Divest from fossil fuel industries,” it says.
I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest.
No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #FarmersProtest— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) February 4, 2021
Reacting to the impact of tweets, Ministry of External Affairs said “it was unfortunate to see vested interest groups” were trying to “enforce their agenda on these protests, and derail them.” The Ministry further added, “Some of these vested interest groups have also tried to mobilise international support against India. The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by the celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible.”
Meanwhile the Delhi Police who has been keeping a strict vigil on social media platforms ever since the farm protests began, “The Delhi Police has registered several cases against those handles which have been pushing either fake news or spreading some kind of rumours for the purpose of disaffection and ill-will. In the process… we have come across one particular document uploaded on a social media handle on a particular platform. This toolkit has a particular section which talks of digital strikes through hashtags on and before January 26, tweet storms from January 23 onwards, physical action on January 26, and asks one to watch out or join farmers’ march into Delhi.
”The Special CP added: “If you go by the unfolding of events including the violence of January 26, it reveals a copycat execution of the action plan. Now that is a matter of concern… Definitely the intention of the creators of this toolkit is to cause disharmony among social, religious and cultural groups and encourage disaffection and ill-will against the government. It also aims at waging social, cultural and economic war against the government, and says so.”
The farm protest which should have restricted itself within the country, has meticulously posted itself on the world map with the help of certain countries and groups who have their personal agendas against India. People like Greta Thunberg, Rihanna and other such celebrities should restrict posting their views on social media till the time they are fully aware of the ground realities. Before tweeting, Greta Thunberg should have done her homework much better rather than jumping upon the Indian authorities and in turn posing herself as their messiah!
