International Conspiracy Promotes Sustainability Along With Equity

• Author: Bruce Rich
• Position: Attorney and author who has served as senior counsel to major environmental organizations
• Pages: 23-23

MAY/JUNE 2021 | 23

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

The Developing World

Last February 13, the Indian

government arrested in the south-

ern city of Bengalaru (Bangalore)

an apparently highly dangerous young

woman. Security forces extradited her

immediately to Delhi to appear before

a court the very next day. Police alleged

that 21-year-old Disha Ravi contribut-

ed to a coordinated international con-

spiracy “to wage economic, social, cul-

tural, and regional war against India.”

Ravi co-founded in 2019 the Indian

branch of Greta unberg’s climate

protest movement, Fridays for Future.

Over the past three yea rs Ravi has been

involved in campaigns to protect the

endangered lion-tailed macaque, delay

a dubiously planned

hydroelect ric dam,

and protest the pro-

posed weakening of

India’s environmental

assessment law.

Early in February

unberg tweeted

her support for hu ndreds of t housand s

of Indian farmers protesting since last

year recent market liberalization laws

for agriculture. e tweet included a

toolkit that explained the fa rmers’ pro-

test, listing various t ypical civil societ y

nonviolent tactics, such as tweeting,

email alerts, pressu re on parliamentari-

ans in the home countries of activists to

raise questions with the India n govern-

ment, etc. Ravi edited several sentences

in unberg’s draft of the toolkit, to

clarify the farmers’ issues. Obviously a

dangerous internationa l conspiracy.

India is one of several major demo-

cratic countries, such as Turkey and

Brazil, where nationalistic strongmen

have come to power, all claiming to

make their countries great (again). At-

tacking journa lists, suppressing non-

governmental environmental, human

rights, and social justice orga nizations,

weakening and non-enforcement of

laws ensuring public participation and

transparency (such as environmenta l

assessment) are all par t of their toolkit.

Ravi was arrested under a British

colonial 1870s sedition act (still on the

books!) that provides up to life impris-

onment for any “words, signs, or rep-

resentations” that “attempt to incite

disaection toward the government.”

She is in good company. e British

Raj arrested Gandhi under the same

law, which the Mahatma, who was als o

a lawyer, said “was designed to suppress

the liberty of the citizen.”

In summer 2020, Ravi was one

of the leaders of a nationwide protest

against a dra ft revision of India’s en-

vironmental assessment law. e lead-

ing English language daily he Hindu

condemned the draft for going “to

great lengths to reduce

or even remove pub-

lic part icipation, and

by extension expert

opinion,” from the en-

vironmenta l approval

process.

e draft includes a

list of projects that would no longer re-

quire environmental clearanc e, includ-

ing coal mining a nd seismic surveys for

oil, methane, and gas on some lands.

It limits public participation in review-

ing pipeline infrastructure in national

parks and wildlife sanctuaries, a s well

as relaxing environmental rules for

roads and highways. During t he public

comment period t hree environ mental

groups — Fridays for Future, Let India

Breathe, and ere Is No Earth B —

helped mobilize over two million pro-

test emails from Indian citizens to the

environment ministry. In response the

government shut down the web sites of

the organizations for weeks a nd threat-

ened to arrest environmentalists under

anti-terrorism laws.

Ravi recounts that her family and

many others in India are alre ady suer-

ing from the eects of climate cha nge.

e granddaughter of farmers, she

sympathizes with their plight. Farmers

account for 58 percent of India’s 1.3 bil-

lion people. ey suer from increased

International Conspiracy Promotes

Sustainability Along With Equity

Bruce Rich is an attorn ey and

author who has served as senior

counsel to major environmental or-

ganizations. brucemrich@gmail.com.

climate extremes of drought and

ooding, as well a s from the economic

threat of rapid market liberaliz ation

of agriculture, which they ma intain

will dispossess them and benet large

agribusinesses. “Instead of being sup-

ported to become self-reliant and pros-

perous,” unberg wrote, “a majority

. . . are increasingly being subjected to

the control of large corporations and

international institutions whose sole

focus is prots, and necessari ly involves

increased exploitation of nature.”

unberg’s and Ravi’s message

links environmental sustainability,

climate action, and broadened politi-

cal and economic democracy. It ap-

pears to be a threat for some nation-

alistic governments. Yet India needs

these activists for a sustainable fu-

ture. e 2020 Yale-Columbia Envi-

ronmental Performance Index, which

examines 180 nations on environ-

mental health and ecosystem vitality

according to 32 performance indica-

tors, ranked India at 168, near the

bottom. India’s air quality ranks 179

(only Pakistan’s is lower), and 42 of

its major rivers are so contaminated

with heavy metals t hat they threaten

human healt h.

Ravi was released on bail following

a deluge of protests from prominent

Indian academics a nd political gures,

including diplomats, for mer nanc e

and environment ministers, and the

economist and author Mihir Sharma,

who tweeted “Ok now we’re arresting

21-year-old climate activists. Well done

India, you big superpower you.”

India has arrested

an environmental

activist whose crime

was to speak out