Palestine solidarity: Pattern of FIRs against protesters emerges in B'luru

Maqsood Maniyar & Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: At least 14 FIRs have been registered against protesters in Bengaluru for staging demonstrations against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza which has taken more than 11,000 lives so far.

The latest FIRs came after over 120 people took out a march on November 5, which started from Church Street and ended on Lavelle Road, where cops detained several people.

Right-wing counter-protesters had heckled the protesters as “anti-national dogs” as the cops looked on. Two days later, cases were registered against three persons.

The march was the result of a call given on social media. Something similar happened after the first large pro-Palestine demonstration in Bengaluru, which erupted on October 16 when protesters gathered outside the MG Road Station.

A day later, FIRs were registered against 11 persons namely Vinay Sreenivas who is associated with Bahutva Karnataka, Babu Prakash AS, Fahad Khan, Imran, Syed Abbas, Leo John, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mohammad Ismail, Shoaib, Umar and others.

The protesters against whom FIRs were registered for the Metro Station demonstration said that the police were hostile to their cause but requested anonymity.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two protesters who showed up to the march near Lavelle Road said that people no longer wanted to associate with the proPalestine protests because of the stigma attached to police cases.

“There should be permission for protests. If there is no permission, then no one will show up only to be detained and have FIRs slapped against them. In the latter case, no one will come to get you out of legal trouble,” a protester said.

Demonstrations pushed to Freedom Park

A senior police official defended the department, claiming that they were booked not for protesting or for their cause but for staging a demonstration at the “wrong place”.

Speaking to News Trail, senior officials from the Bengaluru Police said that the Licensing and Regulation of Protests, Demonstrations and Protest Marches (Bengaluru City) Order, 2021, followed directions from the Karnataka High Court restricting all protests to Freedom Park.

Cops also cited “law and order issues” and a Karnataka High Court order from 2022 that introduces several conditions that empowers the police to dictate where, how and when to protest.

Even a single protestor now requires a police permit. However, some Gaza solidarity protesters said that they were being kept from demonstrating even at Freedom Park.

City-based civil society groups claimed the order confining the protests to Freedom Park goes against many rulings of the Supreme Court upholding the fundamental right of citizens to peaceful assembly.

Dissatisfaction with rules

Recent experiences have shown that governments encourage the use of police power to curtail exercise of rights, the activists alleged.

Following the orders, many activists have staged various protests requesting the State government to withdraw the orders and ensure that everyone has the right to protest anywhere in the city.

Preeti Sunderajan who had participated in the ‘Save Sankey Campaign’ said: “There is no point in forcing those who want to protest on a local issue like Sankey Tank to come to Freedom Park. Removing the protest from its context will rob it of all significance”.

Maithreyi Krishnan, an advocate, added: “Often, even when thousands of women sit on a day-night dharna, it rarely pricks the conscience of either the society or the government because they are not even seen. This is as good as our voice getting scuttled,” she added.

“It would have been better if they had completely banned all protests, instead of pushing us to Freedom Park, creating an illusion of protests while invisibilizing the essence of the protest,” said Sharath, a member of the All India Student Association (AISA) who was recently detained by the police.

Will take up issue: MLA

Congress MLA from Shivajinagar Rizwan Arshad said that it was wrong to put a blanket ban on protests since the right to gather without arms was a fundamental right, vowing that he would advocate for protests to be allowed at Freedom Park.

“There are areas that are sensitive. They want to deny permission there and that is okay. However, places like Freedom Park are meant for protests. If they are denying permission there, we’ll definitely talk. It is our fundamental right to protest. They can suggest where to do it and where not to do it and that’s a different thing and they must give permission accordingly. They can’t deny it. If they are real