MORE than a thousand citizens of Mumbai gathered at a public meeting held at Azad Maidan, Mumbai, on August 20, to protest against and call for an immediate end to the Genocide being perpetrated by Israel at Gaza.
With bombing, shooting of civilians and food and water blockade of Gaza, a programme of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is in progress at Gaza. The permanent occupation of Gaza is the stated aim of the Israeli regime.
The International Criminal Court has indicted the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu and the defence minister, Gallant for war crimes and genocide. Warrants have been issued for their arrest. While worldwide protests are taking place, Mumbai police had repeatedly denied permission to hold public protest on this issue in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.
After determined legal efforts, and filing two writ petitions in Bombay High Court by the Mumbai units of the CPI(M) and CPI, permission was obtained from the Mumbai police to hold a public assembly at Azad Maidan on August 20, 2025 in solidarity with Palestine and to condemn the ongoing Genocide in Gaza.
The "India Stands with Palestine" gathering was called by a coalition of Left and secular political parties including the CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party, Indian National Congress, Nationalist Congress (SP), PWP, CPI(ML) Liberation, and civil society organisations – AIPSO and IPSF.
Despite heavy rains which affected local train movement and an orange alert, more than thousand people gathered and registered their protest at the public assembly in support of the people of Palestine. People from all walks of life gathered from elderly to youth, women, students, teachers, judges, lawyers, doctors, scientists, journalists, film makers, artists, musicians, trade union leaders, and industrial workers from across Mumbai and extended suburbs of Mumbai.
Vivek Monteiro on behalf of the organising coalition and AIPSO gave an extended introduction. He began with homage to the memory of Dr Narendra Dabholkar who was martyred on August 20th by communal terrorist elements. He explained that the gathering is to protest against the Israeli genocide supported by American imperialism and also to assert the democratic rights of Indian citizens under Article 19 of our Constitution. “Today we have restored Azadi to Azad Maidan and in the days to come we will assert this right in all parts of Mumbai”, he said. Adv. Raju Korde of PWP conducted the meeting on behalf of the organising coalition. Among speakers who addressed the assembly were ex-MP Husain Dalwai, Dhananjay Shinde, ex-MLA Mohan Joshi from Indian National Congress; S K Rege and Shailendra Kamble from CPI(M); Subhash Lande, Prakash Reddy from CPI, Samya Korde from Peasants and Workers Party; Meher Siddiqui and Shabana from Samajwadi Party; Vijay Kulkarni from CPI (ML–Liberation); Feroze Mithiborwala from IPSF; Kishor Kardak from Forward Bloc and trade unionist Milind Ranade. Renowned journalist P Sainath, Bina Elias and Salim Khan spoke on behalf of the journalists and described the targeted massacre of journalists in Gaza. Senior filmmakers – Saeed Mirza and Anand Patwardhan, actress Swara Bhaskar spoke on behalf of the artists community. Senior scientist and renowned physicist Dr Brij Arora spoke on behalf of the scientists community. He described how, by majority vote, Israel had been excluded from the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics currently being conducted in Mumbai. Renowned mathematician Dr S G Dani, senior paediatric surgeon Dr Santosh Karmarkar narrated about the killing of hundreds of doctors, nurses and medical workers in the Israeli genocide. Maulana Majidi from Rahman Foundation, Aaqib Zahidi, and Ali Bhojani spoke from civil society participants.
The public protest meeting concluded with sloganeering against the Israeli genocide and expressing solidarity of the citizens of India with the People of Palestine.
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