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

Wed Jul 16 06:37:40 CDT 2014

i really wonder why these young people don't get time for same type of peaceful protest agaist j & k govt. for not doing anything for kashmiri pandits or against bangladesh govt for persecuting bangla hindus? probably that will tarnish their 'SECULAR' image - what a great loss! with secular image they have to part with many things like - money, name, awards etc. in case of politicians 'votes' which they cant afford to lose.

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On Tue, 15/7/14, Asit Das <asit1917 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [Reader-list] Delhi Police Prevents Peaceful Protest in Front of Israeli Embassy – Students, Others, Injured and Detained
 To: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
 Date: Tuesday, 15 July, 2014, 12:04 PM

 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/>
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