How BJP govt across India crushed protests against Israeli attack on Palestine

By Harsh Thakor
Revolutionary Workers' Party of India (RWPI) and various mass organisations such as Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Disha Students' Organisation, Stree Mukti League, along with Indian People in Solidarity with Palestine had given a countrywide call for protest demonstrations against the ongoing genocide of innocent Palestinians in the Gaza by the Zionist Israeli state on 13th October. The protests were conducted at various places in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Allahabad, Patna, Banaras, Vizag, Chandigarh, Haryana.
However, the frantic response given by the Modi government in crushing these protests in support of Palestinian liberation cause once expose or illustrate repressive regimes world over are sent shivers down their spine in face of resistance put forth by the people.
It is no surprise that Modi government hammered every nail in the wall to disrupt the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel demonstrations on 13th October. The chord that Indian fascists share with Israeli Zionists was blatantly exposed.. The Modi government got into the act very promptly and tried to quell the situation by detaining and arresting activists of RWPI and other organizations, placing them under house arrest, and breaking up protests within minutes.
These protest demonstrations and the organizations declared their unflinching support for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and statehood. The imperialist media as well as Indian Godi media are characterizing the resistance of the Palestinian people against the colonial occupation by Zionist Israel as a "terrorist attack", while concealing the mass murders, systematic genocide, indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli state with full cooperation from Western imperialist powers. It was also declared that supporting Palestinians' national liberation struggle does not equate to supporting the Islamic fundamentalist ideology of Hamas. In the absence of any secular alternative, they have chosen those who are actively and militantly spearheading their fight at the moment. Moreover, the origin of Hamas lays its roots in Zionist occupation and settler colonialism of Israel. It is a fact of history that Israel and the US bred and funded Islamic fundamentalist groups in Palestine in the1980s to derail the liberation struggle and marginalise the revolutionary and secular forces within it.
The historical stand of the Indian bourgeois state of at least formally supporting Palestinian national self-determination and opposing hegemony of Israeli settlements has also been done away with under the current Modi regime. It was the consistent policy of Indian state since 1967 to endorse the two-state solution.
Reports of RWPI activists being put under house arrest poured in from Delhi, Allahabad and Mumbai. Shivani Kaul in Delhi, Prasen in Allahabad, Baban Thoke, Ashay, Shashank, Dhananjay in Mumbai were picked up, put under house arrest and then detained. Detentions were made in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Allahabad, Banaras as protestors gathered at various places to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
In Mumbai, later in the day Supreeth and Ruchir were picked up and detained. Ruchir has sustained a serious head injury as well as other injuries as the Mumbai police resorted to open violence. The latest reports confirm that Ruchir and Supreeth have been arrested by police on some flimsy grounds. In Delhi, Priyamvada, Vishal, Naureen, Ashish, Shirshava, Karan, Tushar, Rihan and others were detained at Mandir Marg Police Station.
In Uttar Pradesh, members of Disha Students' Organization, Awinash, Ambarish, Dharmraj and Aakash have been detained in Allahabad and are yet to be released. It is most likely that some charges will be framed against them which is in complete consonance with the fascist Yogi Government in the state.
Disha member Amit has been detained in BHU, Varanasi. In Telangana, Bhargavi, Hina, Sreeja, Sam, Geetha, Anita, Mahipal, Anand and others were detained.
On 12th October 2023, Baban Thoke was detained by Mumbai Police. After this, on the very next day, 13th October 2023, three comrades- Shashank, Aashay and Dhananjay were pulled from their library by the police and were detained by them. Thus, the protest which was planned in Dadar was sabotaged by the police. They also tried to terrorise the protesting people who had gathered at Lallubhai Compound, Mankhurd through means of force. However, members of RWPI unflinchingly combated, with loud, clear sloganeering and with the support of the people. Pro-Palestine slogans and speeches were raised amongst the people.
Unfortunately in the confrontation with the police, Comrade Ruchir has suffered a head injury. The Mankhurd police are now filing case against Com. Supreeth and Ruchir. It is clear that, Mumbai police and Central Government intention is to crush the voice of the people by any means necessary.
This merciless suppression of voices in support of Palestine is nothing but Prime Minister Modi standing in league with Israel, one of India’s leading arms supplier. It must be noted that Mossad and Zionist police are hand in glove with with Indian intelligence agencies such as RAW. Israel supplied Pegasus spyware to India.. Hence, this is India’s communal fascists bondage with their racist Zionist brothers. However, the oppressor ruling classes are highly mistaken if they think that they can silence the voices of justice through these repressive machinations.
On October 16th,a protest demonstration was called at Delhi's Jantar Mantar against the occupation of Palestine by Zionist Israel and in support of the liberation struggle of the Palestinians, whereby just few minutes into the protests, the Delhi police brutally attacked the activists. Protestors were being beaten, dragged, and pushed into the buses, due to which many protesters suffered injuries. After boxing the protesters into two buses, police kept the protesters floating across Delhi for around 2 hours. Even after repeatedly asking, the police did not bother to tell where exactly they were taking the protesters. At last, they dropped the protesters at a police station in Jafarpur Kala village, an outer part of Delhi. However, facing volatile public pressure and rage from all over the country, the police were forced to release the detained protesters.
Democrats should salute the determination or unflinching commitment of the Revolutionary Workers party of India activists. It has always been the nature and character of the oppressors and rulers across the world to underestimate dissent. However, across the world, people ‘s wrath is escalating in no uncertain terms against the Zionist occupation of Palestine by Israel, against their own ruling classes and are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.
---
*Harsh Thakor is a freelance journalist. Thanks reports from Revolutionary Workers Party of India

Comments

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Gujarat Information Commission issues warning against misinterpretation of RTI orders

By A Representative The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has issued a press note clarifying that its orders limiting the number of Right to Information (RTI) applications for certain individuals apply only to those specific applicants. The GIC has warned that it will take disciplinary action against any public officials who misinterpret these orders to deny information to other citizens. The press note, signed by GIC Secretary Jaideep Dwivedi, states that the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool for promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. However, the commission has observed that some applicants are misusing the act by filing an excessive number of applications, which disproportionately consumes the time and resources of Public Information Officers (PIOs), First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), and the commission itself. This misuse can cause delays for genuine applicants seeking justice. In response to this issue, and in acc...

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

Rally in Patna: Non-farmer bodies to highlight plight of agriculture in Eastern India ahead of march to Parliament

P Sainath By A Representative Ahead of the march to Parliament on November 29-30, 2018, organized by over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country demanding a 21-day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers, a mass rally been organized for November 23, Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Say the organizers, the Eastern region merits special attention, because, while crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. To be addressed by P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a statement issued ahead of the rally says, the Eastern India was the most prosperous regi...

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

Counterview

Search This Blog