Hats off to comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the CPI (ML) Liberation, for taking up cudgels on behalf of hapless Indian Muslims arrested for waving Palestinian flags at public gatherings. So far, I haven’t come across any other major politician condemning the police force in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for lodging cases against poor Muslims for raising the flag of Palestine, as if it is a cognisable crime in the eyes of Indian laws.
Besides these BJP-run states where anti-Muslim prejudice is rampant, the men in khaki in Jammu & Kashmir too are targeting mourners for displaying the Palestinian flag in Muharram processions in Srinagar and elsewhere in the centrally-governed, Muslim majority union territory.
But the leaders of so-called secular parties, which Muslims voted for unconditionally in the parliamentary elections, are not sticking their neck out to defend the minority community as they should as recipients of en masse Muslim votes if not for anything else.
The spunky Bhattacharya helms the CPI (ML) Liberation which is a constituent of the INDIA alliance since its inception last year. The communist party not only has a legislative presence in Bihar and Jharkhand but has also wrested key two Lok Sabha seats, Arrah and Karakat, this year. It has 12 MLAs in Bihar and 1 in Jharkhand and is expected to do very well in the coming assembly elections in both states. By some estimates, CPI (ML) is stronger in Bihar than the Congress Party.
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So it was heart-warming and reassuring to hear Bhattacharya, who is often seen on INDIA platforms in the company of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and other top Opposition leaders, demand withdrawal of all police cases against those who waved Palestinian flags in Bihar and other parts of the country.
“India recognises Palestine and our policy has not changed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is a Palestinian embassy in New Delhi. Hence those raising the Palestinian flag can’t be accused of committing a crime. The flags are being waved as a sign of solidarity with the people of Gaza, where close to two lakh lives have been lost in the military action by Israel”, Bhattacharya declared unequivocally in Patna after four instances of Palestinian flag waving in Bihar resulted in lightning action by a partisan police.
The complainants are invariably BJP, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members and criminal cases are registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and under sections 223 and 152 (endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) of Indian Penal Code, resulting in arrests.
But the police action is bizarre because the Government’s own website says that “India’s support for the Palestinian cause is an integral part of the nation’s foreign policy”. In 1974, India became the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation and in 1988, India became one of the first countries in the whole world to recognise the Palestinian state. In 1981, India even released a commemorative stamp on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People.
According to Vrinda Grover, waving the flag of Palestine, a country India has friendly relations with, or shouting pro-Palestine slogans, is certainly not an offence. The eminent lawyer and human rights activist said that “such cases are registered to create a chilling effect, and the arrests are an assault on the freedom of expression”. In short, all such arrests are illegal and a misuse of police powers in BJP-ruled states which deliberately push the Hindutva agenda by targeting Muslims. But there is no outcry against what’s going on in several states. Bhattacharya’s lone voice is not enough. There must be a chorus of emphatic protests but secular parties are intriguingly inhibited when it comes to speaking out for Muslims.
But evidently, all is not lost. At a time when even displaying the Palestinian flag or shouting a pro-Palestine slogan is being treated as a criminal offence in India and most politicians are proving to be spineless by refusing to back Indian Muslims expressing solidarity with Palestinians, an IIT Madras student, Dhananjay Balakrishnan, has done India proud. I doff my hat to the young man!
Cocking a snook at India’s bigoted pro-Israel and anti-Muslim BJP regime which wants to snuff out all pro-Palestine protests, young Dhananjay delivered a no-holds-barred pro-Palestine speech slamming Israeli’s genocide -- and how the biggest technological companies are complicit in Israel’s attack on Palestine -- at the IIT Madras convocation after receiving the Governor’s coveted gold medal.
Without mincing his words, Dhananjay said and I quote: “”There is a mass genocide going on in Palestine. People are dying in large numbers and there is no end in sight. Why should all this bother us, you may ask. Because science has been used to advance the ulterior motives of imperial powers such as Israel. We engineering students work hard to land jobs at tech giants which offer lucrative salaries and great benefits. However these tech giants control various aspects of our life today. Many of these prestigious companies are also directly and indirectly implicated in the war against Palestinian people by providing the state of Israel with technology – technology that is used to kill citizens. As engineers graduating into the real world, it is our job to be aware of the consequences of the work we do. We need to question our own position in these complex systems of power imbalance. We should attempt to understand what we can do to liberate the oppressed along caste, class, creed and gender lines. I believe this is the first step to curb the never-ending cycle of suffering.”
Will these righteous words of a very bright IIT graduate open the eyes of the Indian government which is blindly backing the Zionist regime?
The author is an independent, Pegasused reporter and commentator on foreign policy and domestic politics
