NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Two days after Delhi Police claimed to have found a Khalistani link to the toolkit shared by Sweden’s teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that the document had “revealed a lot” and the government was waiting to see what more come out of it in the police investigation.
Reacting to the toolkit row, Jaishankar expressed concern over what all has come out in the open after the ‘toolkit’ was tweeted by Greta Thunberg. “It has revealed a lot. We’ve to wait and see what else comes out.”
He also said it was clear from what have come out so far why the why the Foreign Ministry reacted to statements which some celebrities gave out “on matters on which they obviously didn’t know very much.”
He said the ministry needed to issue the statement in the wake of farmers’ protest getting international attention as most of the comments of the celebrities were neither accurate nor responsible.
“You see there was a reason why the foreign ministry reacted to the statements which some celebrities gave out for whatever the reason on matters which obviously they didn’t know very much,” Jaishankar said.
After American pop star Rihanna tweeted a CNN article on farmers’ protest and the following suspension of the internet in areas of the National capital, the protest had garnered international support. But among all those who supported farmers, a tweet by Greta Thunberg stood apart as the teen activist shared a toolkit, containing information on how to support the protest. Greta deleted one version of the toolkit only to upload another one saying the earlier version was outdated. Delhi Police registered an FIR against the creators of the toolkit and wrote to Google seeking details. Police said it found Khalistani links with the document and there have been “copycat” execution of the plans laid out in the toolkit.
The union information minister Prakash Javadekar and the BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi have reacted to the toolkit row claiming that the document had brought out “serious issues” to the fore.
A day after Rihanna and Greta Thunberg supported farmers’ protest, the ministry of external affairs had issued a statement condemning such “rushed comments.”
(Manas Dasgupta)