Pressure from progressives forces Indian authorities to allow protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza

The Bombay High court had previously agreed with police version of terming the pro-Palestinian protests illegal and even questioned organizer’s patriotism for protesting over an issue which can harm India’s interest.

Image via x

By Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch

After facing popular resistance and a considerable court battle, the police in India’s major city of Mumbai have finally withdrawn its objections to a pro-Palestinian protest and granted the required permissions on Tuesday, August 12.

As per reports in the media, the Bombay High court, which had previously agreed with the police’s denial of permission, accepted the revised position of the police, allowing Communist Party of India (Marxist) to proceed with the protest at Azad Maidan in the city on August 20.

CPI (M) welcomed the court’s decision to accept the police’s revised stand, claiming it “vindicates the correctness of CPI (M) stand and nullifies court’s own earlier ill remarks and earlier anti-democratic refusal of police.”

The Mumbai police detained most of the state’s leaders, who are part of various left-wing, progressive, and opposition parties, in order to derail the protest in solidarity with Palestine originally scheduled for June 19. They labeled the protest illegal and used force to disperse participants gathered near Azad Maidan at the time.

Later, CPI (M) filed a petition which was dismissed by the Bombay High court. While dismissing its petition, the court even questioned the patriotism of the party leadership accusing it of organizing protests on issues which may harm India’s foreign policy interests.

The court, at the time, deemed CPI (M)’s protest against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza irrelevant and instead “suggested” it organize protests on issues which immediately concern people in the country, such as “garbage dumping, pollution, sewerage and flooding”. 

The court’s actions in July caused large-scale outrage among activists, who called it yet another example of the Indian government’s submission to Israeli interests and its abandonment of the country’s independent foreign policy.

The ultra-right-wing government under Narendra Modi in India has been repeatedly accused of abandoning the country’s long standing pro-Palestinian stance, since it came to power in 2014. 

Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Indian government has on several occasions voted against resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire and better delivery of humanitarian aid in the UN. It has used coercion at home to suppress pro-Palestinian voices and demonstrations.

Israeli ambassador’s lies provokes outrage

Meanwhile, a section of Indians expressed their outrage against an Israeli ambassador’s public rebuttal to one of the country’s leading members of parliament after she took to X to criticize the Israeli killing of Palestinian journalists and called the Israeli war in Gaza a genocide.

People demanded that the government of India take immediate action against the Israeli ambassador Reuven Azar, calling his response to the MP “unacceptable, arrogant and full of lies”.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a prominent figure in India’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC), and an elected MP from Wayanad condemned Israel’s assassination of six Palestinian journalists on Sunday, calling it a “cold blooded murder” and a “heinous crime”.

“The immeasurable courage of those who dare to stand for the truth will never be broken by the violence and hatred of the Israeli state,” Priyanka asserted, then moving on to criticize the Israeli genocide in general.

Priyanka claimed Israel has killed over 60,000 Palestinians in war and starved hundreds to death by blocking essential aid supplies. She demanded international action to end Israel’s crimes on the Palestinian soil.

Priyanka also termed the Indian government’s silence on Israel’s devastation of Gaza “shameful”.

In a direct response, Azar called Priyanka’s post deceitful and tried to shame her by repeating false Israeli government claims about Hamas being responsible for the state of Gaza. He also denied there was a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Several people, leaders of the opposition and activists, took to X to call out Azar’s response. Some even called it an attempt to interfere in India’s domestic politics and demanded the Modi government take immediate action against him.

Others questioned the credibility of Azar’s claims, calling him a “brazen bare faced liar and apologist for a racist genocidal state”. They insisted Azar’s behavior violates basic diplomatic protocols and demanded he must be expelled from the country.

“Is it too much to expect the Modi government, which has shown extreme moral cowardice when it comes to speaking out on Israel’s destruction of Gaza over the past 18-20 months, to take serious exception and objection to the Ambassador’s response,” demanded Jairam Ramesh, another MP and chief of INC’s communication wing.

Ramesh underlined that the INC completely backs Priyanka’s position and recognizes the Israeli war in Gaza as genocide. He asserted that Azar’s tweet was “totally unacceptable” to the party.

Some underlined that Azar could not have dared to publicly question India’s opposition leaders without the “tacit approval” of a government led by a party that is considered ideologically aligned with Zionism.

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