My actions pronounced guilty not in court, but on TV channels by seekers of TRPs

Bengaluru : Climate activist Disha Ravi, who is out on bail, said on Saturday that after her arrest by Delhi Police, her autonomy was violated, with her pictures being splashed all over the newspapers and her actions pronounced guilty not by the court but by the electronic media.

"My actions were pronounced guilty not in the court of law, but on flat screens by seekers of TRPs. I sat there, unaware of the many abstractions made of me in order to satiate their idea of me.

At the end of the five days (19 February 2021), I was shifted to judicial custody for three days. In Tihar, I was aware of every second of every minute of every hour of every day," she said in the statement released on Twitter.

Ravi said that all over the years if someone had asked her where she would see herself in the five years, jail would not be the answer.

"I kept asking myself what it felt like being there at that particular moment in time, but I came back with no answers. I had coerced myself into believing that the only way I would be able to live through this was by tricking myself into thinking that this wasn't happening to me the police did not knock on my door on 13 February, 2021; they did not take my phone and laptop, and arrest me; they did not present me at Patiala House Court; the media personnel were not trying to find a place inside the room," she added.

In the courtroom while desperately searching for the lawyers, Ravi came to terms with the fact that she would have to defend herself.

"I had no idea whether there was legal assistance available so when the judge asked me if I had anything to say, I decided to speak my mind. Before I knew it, I was sent to 5 days in police custody," the young climate activist said.

While in custody, she realised that most people knew little or nothing about climate activism or climate justice.

"My grandparents, who are farmers, indirectly birthed my climate activism. I had to bear witness to how the water crisis affected them, but my work was reduced to tree plantation drives and clean-ups which are important but not the same as struggling for survival."

As a dear friend always says, "Climate justice isn't just for the rich and the white." It is a fight alongside those who are displaced; whose rivers have been poisoned; whose lands were stolen; who watch their houses get washed away every other season; and those who fight tirelessly for what are basic human rights.

We fight alongside those actively silenced by the masses and portrayed as voiceless, because it is easier for savarnas to call them voiceless. We take the easy way out and fund saviourism rather than amplify the voices on ground," the four page statement read.

Ravi stated that she was lucky to have got legal assistance and expressed that there are many languishing in jails. Quoting activist Soni Sori, she said "We are threatened every day, our voices crushed; but we will continue to fight."

Ravi questioned the media, "What of all those still in jail whose stories are not marketable? What of the marginalized that are not worthy of your screen time? What of those who face the world's brazen indifference?

Although their physical forms are trapped behind bars because of our collective silence, their ideas continue to live on as will the united resistance of the people. ldeas do not die. And, truth, no matter how long it takes, always reveals itself."

Along with her statement, she also wrote on Twitter that "I'm letting this out into the internet void in order to present a narrative that is my own".

"This is based on my personal experience and does not represent the opinion of any climate movement, group, or organisation," she tweeted as she narrated her experience through the court trials.