[Reader-list] Delhi Police Prevents Peaceful Protest in Front of Israeli Embassy – Students, Others, Injured and Detained

[Asit Das]

Delhi Police Prevents Peaceful Protest in Front of Israeli Embassy –
Students, Others, Injured and Detained
JULY 14, 2014

by Shuddhabrata Sengupta <http://kafila.org/author/musafir/>   kafila-org

*A Tale of Two Protests, On Two Days.*

Protests against the situation in Gaza have been held in Delhi yesterday,
(Sunday, 13th July, and today, 14th July, in the morning). Yesterday, on
Sunday morning, there was a peaceful protest in front of the Israeli
Embassy – this came out of a call for protest by individuals. Yesterday,
about a hundred odd people, including many young people, had gathered. I
was present at this gathering. Some people made statements condemning the
Israeli state’s aggression against the Palestinian people. The Delhi Police
was present, but did not try to disrupt or disturb the protest. The protest
happened right in front of the Israeli Embassy gates on Aurungzeb Road.
[image: Protestor in front of the Israeli Embassy in Delhi on Sunday, 13th
July 2014]

Protestor in front of the Israeli Embassy in Delhi on Sunday, 13th July 2014
[image: Protestors with Signs against Israeli State's Aggression on Gaza,
in front of the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, 13th July, 2014]

Protestors with Signs against Israeli State’s Aggression on Gaza, in front
of the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, 13th July, 2014

Today, another protest was scheduled, once again in front of the Israeli
Embassy, at exactly the same spot as yesterday’s protest, and this was
organized by students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and from Delhi
University. I was not present at this gathering, but spoke to some people
who were there on the phone before uploading this post. Some of those who
were present at yesterday’s protest, including, for instance, Akbar
Chowdhury, president of the JNUSU, had planned to be there at this protest
too. The protestors, comprising mainly students, were stopped, arbitrarily,
first quite far away from from the venue.
[image: JNU Students Trying to Cross Barricades Put Up by Delhi Police to
Prevent them from reaching the Road in front of the Israeli Embassy in
Delhi. 14th July, 2014]

JNU Students Trying to Cross Barricades Put Up by Delhi Police to Prevent
them from reaching the Road in front of the Israeli Embassy in Delhi. 14th
July, 2014 (Photograph by Jean-Thomas Martelli, from his Facebook Post)
[image: Student Protestor being Manhandled by Policeman, in front of the
Israeli Embassy in Delhi, 14 July, 2014. Photograph by Jean-Thomas Martelli
(from his Facebook Post)]

Student Protestor being Manhandled by Policeman, in front of the Israeli
Embassy in Delhi, 14 July, 2014. Photograph by Jean-Thomas Martelli (from
his Facebook Post)

There was very heavy police presence. Some protestors managed to cross the
barricades put up by Delhi police, and reached the venue and sat down. They
were negotiating with the police, asserting that it would be a completely
peaceful protest with some statements, slogans, and singing and that there
was no intention on anyone’s part to enter or attack the embassy premises
in any way. Suddenly, as this was going on, some police personnel began
attacking the protestors who were sitting on the road, and began dragging
them. Then, all the protestors began being attacked with batons. Kavita
Krishnan, general secretary of the All India Progressive Womens
Association, who was present at the gathering who was raising a slogan even
as she was being dragged away was hit on her lip with a policewoman’s
helmet. The protestors, including Kavita Krishnan, and Akbar Chowhury,
president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union and an activist with the
AISA (All India Students Association) who was present at the gathering have
also been taken there are at present being detained at the Tughlaq Road
police station.
[image: Kavita Krishnan, Tweeting from Tughlaq Road Police Station]

Kavita Krishnan, Tweeting from Tughlaq Road Police Station

The police has been violent and abusive with the protestors, they have been
beaten, several protestors have injuries, though apparently, no one is in a
critical condition. Around fifty of them are still in detention, as I
write, in the Tughlaq Road police station.

When a news team from CNN-IBN reached Tughlaq Road Police Station and tried
to interview Kavita Krishnan at the Police Station gate, she was dragged in
by police personnel who were present and prevented from completing her
statement to the news team.

What is it that makes the Delhi Police behave so differently on two
successive days at the same place?

1. Is it because a protest on a Sunday, when the embassy is shut, and the
city quiet, is considered harmless, and a protest on a Monday when the
embassy is open and the media active, considered inadmissible.?

2. Or, is it because the Delhi Police’s by now familiar hostility towards
any gathering featuring the presence of left wing student groups,
especially from JNU, kicked in today, almost like a natural
reflex.Yesterday’s gathering did have some of the same students present,
but it was not called by them. The call for today’s protest went out on the
facebook pages of JNU students. It is noticable that everytime JNU students
have tried to protest in the city on any issue, in the recent past, they
have been prevented from doing so, with force, by the Delhi Police. Police
reach the gates of the university to try and ensure that the students do
not leave. And when that fails, they try and stop, divert and detain them
on their way to the protest venue. This is becoming a regular pattern.

3. Or is it because, orders have come from ‘above’ that say no one can will
be allowed to speak about Palestine in front of the Israeli Embassy in
Delhi any longer.

Or, is it a combination of all three factors above?

When large peaceful protests with thousands of people can happen in London
and New York in front of Israeli embassies and consular facilities, why
does a gathering of a hundred odd peaceful young people in front of the
Israeli Embassy invite batons, abuse and detention in a police station ?

See Also -

The Memory of Fifty Seven Seconds: After Watching an Israeli Missile Strike
in the Gaza Strip on Al Jazeera
<http://kafila.org/2014/07/13/the-memory-of-fifty-seven-seconds-after-watching-an-israeli-missile-strike-in-the-gaza-strip-on-al-jazeera/>