Assam Writer Arrested On Sedition Charges For Questioning ‘Martyrs’ On Facebook Post

Guwahati based writer Sikha Sarma, who is also a vocal critic of the Assam state government, was arrested over a Facebook post on Tuesday. The 48-year-old was accused of "causing disrespect to martyrs". Her controversial post was in reference to the security force personnel who were killed in a Maoist attack in Chattisgarh, on April 3.

An FIR was lodged on Monday with Dispur Police by advocates Umi Dekha Baruah and Kangkana Goswami, against a post shared by Sarma on Facebook. “A salaried person dying in harness is not a martyr. If that is the case then an electrician dying of electrocution is also a martyr. Don’t make the people emotional, media,” read the post by the Assamese writer.

This post received a lot of backlash online. Many social media users criticised the writer for speaking ill of the deceased Armed Forces personnel. the Naxal attack that took place in Chattisgarh's Bastar area left 22 security personnel dead and injured 31, while one jawan went missing.

The FIR states that Sikha Sarma's post “maligned and disregarded the sacrifice of our martyrs by urging the media not to generate public sentiments in their favour and not to treat them as shahids as they are drawing a salary for the services they are providing to the nation."

Sarma was booked under the IPC section 124A, for sedition, defamation, intimidation and using obscene words; and section 45 of the Information Technology Act, Police Commissioner of Guwahati Police, Munna Prasad Gupta revealed.

The writer will be taken to the court on Wednesday, April 7, 2021. According to the two-page FIR lodged, her remarks reduce the sacrifice which the jawans make for the safety of the county, to a mere moneymaking discourse. It also said that her statement is a verbal assault on the spirit of service to the nation.

Before being arrested, Sikha Sarma said that proper discussions should be done to understand what she actually meant by the statement and ask what is the true meaning of the word martyr.

Two of the jawans who were killed in the Maoist attack were from the state of Assam.