Indian environmentalist, 22, arrested over support of farmer protests

India has arrested a 22-year-old climate activist and ally of Greta Thunberg after she promoted a so-called online "toolkit" that supports the country's protesting farmers.

Disha Ravi, a leader from the Indian wing of Ms Thunberg's Friday for Future campaign, was arrested at her home in Bangalore on Saturday and taken to New Delhi for questioning after using social media to distribute the web document.

Ms Ravi is accused of using the toolkit, an online document with advice on how to raise awareness about and take part in the farmer protests, for sedition against the Indian government.

Her arrest is the latest escalation in India’s crackdown on free expression and political dissent as it seeks to stifle endorsements of the farmers’ mass protests.

“She was one of the editors of the toolkit google document and a key conspirator in the document’s formulation and dissemination,” said a Delhi police spokesperson, referring to Ms Ravi.

Ms Ravi appeared in a court in New Delhi on Sunday where she has been remanded in police custody for five days.

It comes after Ms Thunberg and the popstar Rihanna used their celebrity status to support the farmers' protests, prompting an angry response from the Indian government.

In a tweet sent to her 101m followers, Rihanna wrote: “Why aren’t we talking about this?”

India’s foreign ministry accused the pop singer and Ms Thunberg, who recently posted a link to the toolkit, of encouraging “sensationalist social media hashtags and comments.”

Hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers have been protesting the removal of government price guarantees for their produce, which they say will destroy their livelihoods.

But the Indian government insists that only a small number of farmers are opposed to the reforms and that the new rules will benefit the industry.

Indian activists have urged Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, to release Ms Ravi immediately.

“Young environmental activists are the latest victims of the Government’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the ongoing farmers' protest and the nationwide solidarity it has generated,” said Leo F Saldanha, a spokesman for the Coalition for Environmental Justice (CEJ).

Mr Saldanha said her arrest had exposed the Indian government’s “intolerance of dissent."

“It is simply unimaginable that you can pick someone and put her in a plane without her mother even knowing about it,” he added.

Shashi Tharoor, an Indian MP and supporter of the farmers’ protests, said: “I don’t think it makes sense for the State to go after a climate activist for a retweet,” he said, referring to a Twitter feature which allows users to promote other uses’ messages.

“The Indian State is not so fragile that it needs to overreact in this way. The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly made it clear since 1962 that sedition charges only apply when there is explicit and overt incitement to violence.

“This is wholly absent in many of the cases in which sedition charges have been brought by the authorities,” he added.

To accuse a young climate activist of sedition ... is deeply egregious,” said Karuna Nundy, a Indian Supreme Court lawyer. “This comes at a time when those who disagree with government policy are being systematically targeted for saying so.”

Delhi Police have also filed a case against the creators of the online toolkit, with the preliminary investigation claiming that it was devised by “pro-Khalistan” organisation Poetic Justice Foundation.

Khalistan is a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state in the Punjab region of India.

The Indian government has previously claimed that the farmers’ protests were fomented by Sikh separatists.

It is understood that by linking the protests to the Sikh separatist movement, the Indian government has given itself access to tougher methods of quelling dissent, including life imprisonment for those convicted of sedition.