Published 16:49 IST, February 16th 2021
Anil Vij defends tweet on Disha Ravi, called for eradication of 'anti-national ideolology'
Anil Vij justified that his tweet called for the destruction of an 'anti-national ideology' and was not meant to specifically target one person.
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After Twitter sent a notice to Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij over his tweet seeking the 'eradication of anti-nationals', the leader defended his statements saying that the people were unable to comprehend what he meant since they had studied in English schools. Vij justified that his tweet called for the destruction of an 'anti-national ideology' and was not meant to specifically target one person.
"These people are not able to understand Hindi language as they studied in English schools. My statement was to eliminate the seed production of these Anti-nationals, not any person. It is all about the ideology that needs to be destroyed, the ideology that goes against a nation with the assistance of international people," said Anil Vij.
Micro-blogging site Twitter on Monday sent a notice to Anil Vij citing complaints from Germany about a recent tweet of his where he had called for the wipeout of anyone who harbored seeds of anti-nationalism in their mind. “Whoever harbours the seeds of anti-nationalism in their mind, has to be destroyed from the roots, be it #Disha_Ravi or anyone else,” Vij had tweeted in Hindi. Shortly after sending the notice, Twitter said that it had investigated the tweet and it was "not subject to removal under Twitter rules or German law".
— ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) February 15, 2021
Delhi police allege Disha 'creator' of toolkit
On February 14, Delhi police's special cell arrested 22-year-old Disha Ravi for allegedly disseminating the protest 'toolkit' related to farmers' protests on social media. The original 'toolkit', first shared by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg exposed a massive international conspiracy against India, its government, and select Indian companies, after which it was shortly deleted with an edited, watered-down version of it being posted online.
While addressing a press conference on Monday, Delhi Police Cyber Cell Joint CP Prem Nath mentioned that the "action plan" in the toolkit document was executed in a "copycat manner" on January 26 resulting in violence that was witnessed in the national capital. Moreover, Joint CP Prem Nath alleged that Shantanu, Nikita Jacob, and Disha Ravi were the creators of the toolkit. According to him, they were among 60-70 persons who attended a Zoom meeting on January 11 organized by the pro-Khalistani-Poetic Justice Foundation to shape the modalities for Republic Day.
"The initial examination of Nikita revealed that she and her associate Shantanu and Disha had created the toolkit Google document. The email account created by Shantanu is the owner of this document. All others are its editors. A woman named Puneet who is based in Canada connected these people to the pro-Khalistani Poetic Justice Foundation and through them, created the Google toolkit document titled 'Farmer Global Strike and Global Day of Action- 26th January'. On January 11, Nikita and Shantanu attended a Zoom meeting organised by Poetic Justice Foundation in which the modalities of the Global Day of Action was worked out," said the senior police official.
16:49 IST, February 16th 2021