Toolkit was only to educate people on farm stir: Nikita Jacob
In her statement to the Delhi Police, which HT has seen, Jacob has accepted that she played a role in mustering support for the farmers’ protests on the social media and shared details with activists globally, but emphasised that there was nothing illegal about what she did.
Advocate and activist Nikita Jacob, who faces arrest for her alleged role in preparing a toolkit detailing digital support for farmers’ protests, has denied sharing any information with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, while underscoring that the document was simply an “informational pack” and was not intended to incite violence.
In her statement to the Delhi Police, which HT has seen, Jacob has accepted that she played a role in mustering support for the farmers’ protests on the social media and shared details with activists globally, but emphasised that there was nothing illegal about what she did.
“The information contained in the toolkit does not in any manner incite riots or violence and is simply an information pack with information from various sources... No weapons, no violence, no mention of anything remotely violent in the toolkit or any of our communication,” the 30-year-old lawyer from Mumbai asserted.
The toolkit, she said, sought to only educate those interested to learn more about the broader perspective involved in relation to the farmers’ current situation and fears, besides other public information and resource links for similar campaigns.
Jacob, who is a volunteer of global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR), told the Delhi Police that to prepare an informational kit for an ongoing movement was “natural and perfectly legal in a democracy guarded by a constitution as strong as ours.”
Facing a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued by a Delhi court, Jacob said the toolkit was being prepared by XR India volunteers for presenting the whole picture with a simple breakdown for an international audience. She told the police that the draft toolkit was shared on the XR WhatsApp group for comments and feedback before it was finalised on January 22, and circulated within XR networks whilst it primarily focused on the farm issues, the right to express dissent and the larger democracy.
Jacob’s statement read that one of the XR volunteer partners, Fridays for Future, shared the toolkit with Greta Thunberg, seeking her solidarity with the protesting farmers in India.
