Of Course, This Couldn't Possibly Happen Here

To
The Chief Minister,
Shri Prithviraj Chavan,
Government of Maharashtra,
Mumbai,
India,

Sub: We condemn the Mumbai Police action & confiscation of our 'Boycott Israel-Save India, 15th May Nakba-Day' Banners from a private office premise.

Respected Sir,
Namaste!

We are extremely peturbed and angry at the fact that today, on the 18th of May 2012, at 3.00pm, the Agripada police raided the premises of the Jamat-i-Islami-i-Hind at Madanpura & confiscated the 'May 15 - Nakba Day' banners. The office staff were called over to the Agripada Police Station for further questioning. Soon after, on making calls to the police station, which had  earlier refused to give us any information, but after sustained calls from various important quarters we were informed that it was on the behest & instructions of the Israeli consulate in Mumbai, that the police went into action. This is indeed a matter of great concern, whereby the local police is now acting as an agent of a foreign consulate against Indian citizens.

This is clearly an infringement of our sovereign & democratic rights & we thus lodge our protest & condemn the action of the police as strongly as possible. The banners were not put up in any public space without the due permission of the municipal authorities, as is the norm. The banners were strung outside the balcony on the first floor of the said private premises. Moreover the banners had the following messages in the context of the May 15th protests that are held globally.

i) Boycott Israel - Save India!!
ii) Free Palestine & Right of Return of the Refugees
iii) May 15th - Nakba Protests!!

These banners and protests are in keeping with our historical national tradition of supporting the anti-colonial freedom struggles* & the international political consensus in terms of the global day of protests against the creation of the Zionist Apartheid Racist Israel.

Thus we demand that action be taken against:

i) The Israeli consulate, wherein they are clearly told to operate within the limits of a foreign entity as a consulate & not step beyond the boundaries & the laws of our country. They need to be told that they are not the new viceroys of India, where they can directly call up the local police station & have them raid & arrest patriotic citizens.

Though this problem also stems from the fact that due to state policy a number of low level police officials are also travelling to Israel, for so-called anti-terror training whilst it is a well known fact that Israel is the fountainhead of terror in the world.

This flawed training of our police by certified Islamophobes has resulted in an increased wave of anti-Muslim xenophobia amongst our police & intelligence services, as has been evident in the persecution of Muslim youth in the course of the last two decades.

Meanwhile, a significant number of Mossad agents have been identified & expelled from India for indulging in espionage, drug peddling & weapons smuggling. Also the links of racist Israel with the extreme right-wing Manuwadi forces, namely the BJP-RSS-VHP-BD, all stand exposed.

Yet the secular Congress-led UPA turns a blind eye to the Mossad operations in our city & across the country.

Israel poses a grave security threat to the very sovereignty & unity of our country. Today, the dubious & perfidious role of the Zionist-Israeli Lobby in America & the Western world stands exposed & Israel stands at the bottom of public opinion across the world. Yet the ruling political elite in our country do not seem to understand the obvious. Also the corrupting role of Israeli weapons manufacturers has been exposed by none less than the Defence Ministry itself, whereby 4 Israeli companies have been banned for bribing politicians, military officials and bureaucrats. The links of the Mossad & the Abhinav Bharat & Sanatan Sanstha terror organizations are also being probed due to the charge-sheet filed by Shaheed ATS Chief Hemant Karkare.

Thus it is also due to the flawed policies of the government, where the likes of racist Israelis operate with impunity, even by-passing the official corridors of power & our intel-security apparatus.

ii) The DCP Mr Kishore Jadhav & the Sr Inspector Mr Suryavanshi (Agripada Police Station) all need to be taken to task for operating at the behest of the Israeli consulate as their agents.

All the police stations in our city of Mumbai, across Maharashtra & India, need to be warned that they cannot be acting at a telephone call from either the Israeli, the American, or any other foreign power.

The next time the people of this city will lay siege to the police station if our sovereign democratic rights as Indian citizens are again infringed upon.

We also demand that the Home Minister, Mr P R Patil, take the appropirate action against these errant officials so we do not see a repeat of these abominable acts ever again.

We represent the patriotic tradition of our Freedom Movement against the British colonial occupation of our Motherland & we will not stand by and see our nation be colonized once again by American & Israeli imperialists. We will not betray the sacrifices & the memories of our founding fathers & the thousands who laid down their lives for a free India.

Today there is a movement across the world where the masses are challenging the US-Israeli-European Neo-colonial project & the demise of the Western imperial powers is destined.

It is time for the Indian political class to understand these new political realities for the future of our nation & the world is at stake.

We walk in the path of Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Mahatma Phule, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Subash Chandra Bhose & Bhagat Singh & it is their teachings that we will strive to carry on.

Jai Hind!! Jai Bharat!!

Feroze Mithiborwala, Kishore Jagtap, Aslam Ghazi, Jyoti Badekar & Arif Kapadia

(From Mumbai police confiscate Nakba Day banners, Bharat Bachao Andolan, countercurrents.org, 19/5/12)

[* "What was still more unpleasant for the Government, the Moslem world outside Palestine began to raise its voice. An all-India Moslem Conference for Palestine was held in Bombay [now Mumbai, in May 1922] and passed a resolution that the Holy Land of Palestine was the trust of the whole Moslem world and not of the Moslems of Palestine alone. It demanded the abolition of the Balfour Declaration, the termination of the Mandate and the establishment of self-government there. It decided to celebrate a 'Palestine Day' throughout India, Burma and Ceylon, on Friday the 16th [May], to begin after prayers at the mosques. This was held as arranged, and in Bombay particularly was on an impressive scale. Long processions paraded through the Moslem quarters, waving banners inscribed 'Down with the Balfour Declaration!' and Reuter cabled that a meeting in the evening was attended by 100,000 persons." (Palestine: The Reality (1939), JMN Jeffries, p 620)]