Teen environmentalist Greta Thunberg recently in an interview opened up about how she felt after seeing extreme reactions in India after she tweeted in solidarity with protesting farmers.
A few weeks ago, activist Greta Thunberg had lent her support for the ongoing farmers’ protest in India. Sharing a news article that spoke about India cutting off internet access around Delhi as the agitation continued, she tweeted that “we stand in solidarity with the farmers protest in India”.
Soon after this controversy erupted, with a ‘protest toolkit’ shared by Thunberg becoming the focus of an investigation by Indian authorities even as netizens targeted the teenager.
Protests against Thunberg took an ugly turn when protesters burnt her photos in Delhi, Twitter users trolled her relentlessly over her actions and the toolkit.
Despite all the backlash, Greta put out another tweet where she wrote, I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #FarmersProtest.”
Now, during an interview with Mehdi Hasan on his MSNBC show, she opened up about the extreme reactions her tweets irked. Thunberg says that while she was not affected on a personal level, the backlash helped “put things into perspective”.
“I wasn’t risking anything. Because I was fortunate enough to live in a part of the world where I can use my voice, and where I have complete freedom of speech…and where I have the right to peaceful protests. It just made me realize how fortunate I am, and how privileged I am to be able to use those rights,” she said.
You can see the video here:
She said that though this might not matter to her, there were people who risked their freedom or even their lives to exercise these “basic fundamental rights”.
Greta Thunberg’s tweets in support of the protests were among many posts including that of Rihanna’s which had drawn international attention to the farmers’ protest.