On the morning of October 12, student-activist Aalam Nawaz, a resident of Hospet in Karnataka, obtained a name summoning him to the native police station.

He was detained on the police station from 11 am until 7 pm, earlier than being launched on bail.

His crime? Putting up a WhatsApp standing message containing a manqabat – an Islamic devotional poem – with photos depicting violence in Palestine. It was meant to suggest help for Palestinians because the Israeli military assaults the Gaza strip.

“When I posted the status, I did not think even once that I would get in trouble,” Nawaz advised Scroll. “Since then I have stopped using social media on the advice of my elders.”

The police has reportedly invoked authorized provisions towards him which are geared toward people committing offences which will disturb communal concord or inflame tensions between social teams.

Nawaz is one in every of a number of people throughout India who’ve confronted police action for expressing solidarity with Palestinians, both via social media posts or protests.

The police have cited the upkeep of legislation and order and communal concord as grounds for the crackdown towards pro-Palestine messages and protests.

However, authorized specialists that Scroll spoke to have criticised this justification. They say that there is no such thing as a authorized foundation for prohibiting peaceable pro-Palestine protests.

Worldwide protests

Israel declared conflict on Gaza after an assault by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7 resulted within the deaths of round 1,400 Israelis. Incessant air strikes and a floor invasion by Israel since then have killed over 8,500 folks in Gaza.

The conflict has generated protests the world over, with many supporting Palestinians. Large demonstrations towards Israel have been seen in cities corresponding to Colombo, Barcelona and Mexico City. Kerala has additionally seen massive turnouts in help of the Palestinian trigger.

Expressing help for Palestine can also be in consonance with India’s longstanding place on the Israel-Palestine battle, that was lately reiterated by the Modi authorities: that “[t] here must be resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine living within secure and recognised borders side by side at peace with Israel”.

Police crackdowns on protests

In spite of this, public demonstrations and civil protests protesting towards civilian deaths in Gaza have been prohibited in a number of elements of the nation.

For occasion, within the National Capital Territory of Delhi, permission for a pro-Palestine protest on October 16 by the All India Students Association, a left-wing pupil organisation, at Jantar Mantar, the designated website for civil protests in Delhi, was denied by the Delhi Police “in view of prevailing situation and in order to maintain security/law & order arrangements”. No authorized provision was cited by the Delhi Police in its order.

When the All India Students Association went forward with a peaceable demonstration at Jantar Mantar on October 16, the protestors suffered a brutal crackdown from the Delhi Police.

According to Manik Gupta, president of the All India Students’ Association’s Delhi University unit, who was current on the protest, the Delhi Police beat up and detained near 200 protestors and moved them in two buses to a police station on the outskirts of Delhi. They have been launched solely within the night.

Gupta advised Scroll that they weren’t supplied any written order or authorized justification by the police for his or her detention.

Similar prohibitions towards pro-Palestine messaging and protestors have taken place in Kolkata and Bengaluru and in elements of Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir.

Pro-Palestine protests not unlawful

Legal specialists stated that there’s nothing in Indian legislation that bars peaceable pro-Palestine protests.

Naveed Mehmood Ahmad, senior resident fellow with the Criminal Justice Team on the authorized coverage think-tank Vidhi stated that the charging of protestors with offences coping with selling enmity or collaborating in an illegal meeting is unusual. “These offences require an intention to either use criminal force or an intention to incite violence,” he stated. “There is nothing to indicate that these protests fulfilled this criterion.”

He added: “A peaceful protest against human rights violations in another part of the world or an expression of solidarity cannot even remotely be associated with an act of creating disharmony between two groups living in India.”

According to Ahmad, Indian legislation is evident on this: there have to be energetic incitement of violence to invoke offences coping with communal provocation and the mere expression of opinions or concepts can not entice these provisions.

Delhi-based senior advocate Mohan Katarki agreed. “Anyone can speak or express anything in public as long as it doesn’t incite violence,” he stated. “Public demonstrations may only be barred if they threaten law and order.”

Senior advocate and jurist G Mohan Gopal stated that the legislation requires that the act constituting the provocation should itself be unlawful “There is protection of lawful acts of protests, which cannot form the basis of prosecution,” he stated.

He added: “Cracking down on lawful protests is unconstitutional and illegal.”

Driven by islamophobia

The criminalisation of pro-Palestine protests doesn’t bode effectively for the well being of democracy in India, specialists advised Scroll.

“This is not the first time these provisions have been invoked in such an arbitrary manner,” Ahmad stated. “That is perhaps why courts have been clear that these provisions cannot be used to quell free speech expression.”

Katarki didn’t mince his phrases. “These police crackdowns are an intimidation tactic,” he stated. “These are high-handed acts to deter people from protesting.”

Gopal stated, “What is driving this crackdown is the Islamophobia which leads people into seeing what is happening in Gaza as a legitimate crackdown on terrorism rather than as a military action against innocent civilians that is prohibited by international law.”

Katarki requested, “Pro-Palestine protests are happening across the world, so why can’t Indians hold such protests?”

With inputs from Zafar Aafaq.