Senior government sources said the kit, aimed at damaging India’s interests, was prepared by ‘Peace For Justice’, a body co-founded by a self-declared Khalistan supporter Mo Dhaliwal who is based in Vancouver, Canada.
The PowerPoint presentation detailed the list of tasks aimed against India. Some of the heads mentioned in the toolkit were “disrupt ‘yoga and chai’ image of India in general”, “unified global disruption in the diaspora on January 26” and “repeal of farm laws”. Thunberg had deleted the post but not before many in India grabbed screenshots of her post which soon went viral.
“The documents shared mistakenly by Greta shows how tweets by Rihanna and others weren’t organic and were part of a larger campaign to malign India. This makes it important to see all such statements/tweets by important people in India and abroad in the context of the planned and pre-scripted campaign,” a senior government functionary who insisted on remaining anonymous said. He cited the investigation launched by Delhi Police into the origin of the toolkit which BJP on Thursday slammed as a “schoolkit of anarchy”.
Union minister V K Singh claimed in a Facebook post that Thunberg’s deleted tweet had revealed the real designs of a conspiracy at an international level against India.
“Need to investigate the parties which are pulling the strings of this evil machinery. Instructions were laid out clearly as to the ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘what’. Conspiracies at this scale often get exposed, and ultimately it took the hasty tweet of Greta, who with other international celebrities suddenly turned sensitive towards farmers’ issues,” Singh said.
“The toolkit tweeted by Thunberg in support of farmers’ protest, was, in fact, a schoolkit of anarchy. They (foreign personalities) have nothing to do with these laws, they just want to create a situation of anarchy and trouble in the country,” BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said.
The toolkit, with ‘Will you be part of the largest protest in human history?’ as the headline on its cover, has taglines like ‘#AskIndiaWhy’ and ‘Global Farmers Strike – First Wave’. The strap on the page reads, “To stand up against India’s failing democracy (at the behest of the fascist ruling party, RSS-BJP)” and “To stand up against unregulated corporatisation of the farming sector”.
An official said the toolkit also had a plan to carry forward the “malign India campaign” even if the government repealed the laws. “This shows how sinister the entire campaign was,” he added.
The campaigners had suggested to observe “global action day” on January 26, with a unified, consistent message that could be easily repeated by the mainstream media and the general public. “The messages should be ‘evergreen’ so that they focus on protests, but stay relevant even if the laws are repealed,” it suggested.