The Bengaluru South division police denied permission for a pro-Palestine cultural event scheduled to be held at the Ranga Shankara theatre in the city on Wednesday, November 28, allegedly citing security reasons. Singer M D Pallavi, artist Ramneek Singh, and actor-playwright Swetanshu Bora were to perform at the event, which was titled ‘As We Bear Witness – An evening of poems, a short play, and other readings on Palestine’. 

Pallavi told TNM she was surprised the event got cancelled because it was simply a reading of poems and plays from Palestine. “It was an indoor event, in a performance space. All of this requires no prior permission. It is strange that the cops came to Ranga Shankara and asked them to stop the event,” she said.

When asked, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Rahul Kumar Shahpurwad said that “a few people” had shared concerns about the event. The police did not know who the participants were and what kind of an event it was, which was why it had to be cancelled, he said. He refused to tell what exactly were the concerns and whom they came from.

Vijay Prasad, a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had shared a poster of the event on X (Twitter), claiming that a “drama on Hamas - Israel” was going to be held at Ranga Shankara. “Hamas is Terrorist Org & any activity supporting Hamas should be stopped (sic),” he wrote, tagging the Bengaluru Police Commissioner, Karnataka Director General of Police, and the BJP’s Karnataka unit. On being contacted by TNM, he denied having filed any official complaint to stop the event.

On October 20, the Bengaluru city police had detained as many as protesters including members of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), and Communist Party of India — Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) during a demonstration at the Freedom Park condemning atrocities in Palestine. The protest was organised to raise awareness about the ongoing conflict in Palestine and express solidarity with the Palestinian people. The protesters said they had sought permission from the police to protest at Freedom Park, but were denied.

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