An 8-year-old environment activist from Manipur created a stir on social media on Friday after she asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to feature her in his #SheInspiresUs campaign.
To celebrate the International Women’s Day on 8 March, PM Modi has announced he will “give away” his social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube – for a day to “women whose life and work inspire us”.
“Please don’t celebrate me if you are not going to listen my voice,” Kangujam tweeted in response to a tweet by MyGovIndia, a citizen engagement platform of the government.
Licypriya, who has been actively campaigning since July 2018 to draw attention towards climate change, fossil fuels and poor air quality, wrote, “After thinking many times, I decided to turns down this honour. Jai Hind. ”
In February 2019, Licypriya had skipped her class 1 examinations to launch her ‘Parliament Movement’ and has since returned multiple times with her placards urging MPs to pass a climate change law.
On Saturday, she hinted that her snub of the prime minister’s #SheInspiresUs campaign had led to an adverse ‘propaganda’ and ‘bullying’. Reiterating that she wants political leaders to listen to her voice, she asserted, “I believe my rejection will helps to listen my voice.”
Within a couple of hours of being featured on MyGovIndia’s Twitter handle with 1.7 million followers, Licypriya responded asking “is it fair” to feature her as an “inspiring woman” but ignoring her concerns about the environment.
“Government don’t listen to my voice and today they selected me as one of the inspiring woman of the country. Is it fair?,” she tweeted on Thursday, 5 March.
Not Greta
If Licypriya has been firm in her snub of the #SheInspiresUs campaign, she has also been firm on another point: She is not Greta Thunberg.
The 8-year-old activist has often been called ‘India’s Greta’ and subjected to comparisons with the 17-year-old Swedish climate activist. Her pinned tweet makes this amply clear - “ Stop calling me “Greta of India”. I am not doing my activism to looks like Greta Thunberg.”
While she acknowledges Thunberg as an “inspiration” and an “influencer” with whom she shares a common goal, she reminds the media, “I have my own identity, story.”
In a strong message to the media, she tweeted, “If you call me “Greta of India”, you are not covering my story. You are deleting a story.”
She had met Thunberg in December 2019 at the UN Climate Change Conference. Even back then Licypriya had tweeted at PM Modi, “I am now with my inspiration @GretaThunberg to give more pressure 2 you & the world leaders. You can’t underestimate us.”
Parliament, Police & Protest
A defining feature of Licypriya’s activism are images of her standing alone with a placard outside Parliament. A clip of her with a placard urging PM Modi and members of Parliament to enact a law on climate change had gone viral.
Describing her activism as “Child movement”, she has, on multiple occasions, drawn the attention of the police and law enforcement personnel for her protests.
A scan of her twitter profile reveals that she has complained about an apathetic political class that is unwilling to lend her an ear or act on her concerns about climate change. Within this context, her rejection of the PM’s Women’s Day campaign flows from the longstanding complaint that MPs have not bothered to listen to what she has to say.
On 28 and 29 February, while Parliament was in session, the activist from Manipur had turned up with her placard once again which read “CHILD MOVEMENT FOR CLIMATE - PASS THE CLIMATE CHANGE LAW”.
Sharing images of police confronting her “Why so many policeman are usually threatening me as a resistance in my protest everytime? It needs dozens of police personals to stop an 8 years old girl??? But WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE! “ she had tweeted on 28 February.
Climate Change Act
Her primary demand is the enactment of a climate change law in the country. She has been consistent with her message and persistent in her demand.
She has participated in marches and spoken on climate change across India and had also attended The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain in December. The 8-year-old has spoken up on a variety of environmental issues from rising sea levels to fossil fuels.
Fake Claims Emerge
On Sunday, 8 March, it emerged that Licypriya’s father had allegedly fabricated a story about her attending a session of the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, Switzerland in April 2019.
In a detailed Twitter threat, political activist Angellica Aribam notes that an investigation by journalist Chitra Ahanthem had found the claim to be sham. Following the revelation by Ahanthem for Imphal Free Press, other publications like East Mojo had also retracted their story.
Licypriya, however, did attend the COP25 conference in Madrid, Spain later that year in Madrid, Spain. She also met UN secretary General António Guterres. However, her claims of the UN summit in April are unsubstantiated.
Moreover, the India Peace Prize, which she claims to have won, a claim that was also reiterated in the MyGovIndia tweet, appears to be given to her by an organisation run by her father.
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