Pulwama Attack: LIC Employee Suspended, Faces Death Threats for Facebook Posts

“LIC has given me 10 days to reply to the show cause notice for indulging in anti-national activities, and I am running from pillar to post seeking legal advice to prepare a robust response. The situation all around has calmed down a bit, but I still get the occasional death threat or two. But I want to resolutely stick to my guns,” said Krishnendu Sengupta, a Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) employee, who has been suspended for his Facebook posts in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, and also had to face public ire, compelling him to go into hiding for some days.

As the ruling BJP’s and the media’s warmongering rhetoric catches the nation firmly in its tentacles, it has become verboten to criticise the Indian armed forces’ role in occupying Kashmir and keeping it under a virtual military rule.

Since February 14, when more than 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack in Pulwama, a number of professionals and private individuals – ordinary citizens exercising their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, have borne the brunt for their candour.

Sengupta is not the only one to face ire and discrimination. According to media reports, Papri Banerjee, a professor at a private college in Assam was detained because of a Facebook post in a similar vein as that of Sengupta, and had to flee home after receiving death and rape threats, and in Orissa, Madhumita Ray, an assistant professor at Kalinga Institute of Technology, was sacked for saying on a television channel that India should not go to war against Pakistan.

Krishnendu Sengupta, a 44-year-old LIC employee in West Bengal’s Durgapur, is the latest addition to this list. Since writing two Facebook posts on February 15 which took a critical view of the armed forces’ role in Kashmir, and tried to counter the shrill rhetoric of going to war. The Life Insurance Corporation of India, where he has been working since 1996, immediately suspended him for indulging in anti-national activities, and instituted a departmental inquiry against him. Worse, he has been facing a barrage of death threats and abuse on social media and offline, and has been forced to take shelter in an undisclosed location far away from Durgapur.

On 15 February, Sengupta wrote on Facebook:

“It may sound harsh, but I admit that killing of CRPF jawans hurts me lesser than killings of innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces. If the State continues genocide, wont there ever be retaliation?”

When contacted over the phone by this correspondent, Sengupta went to great lengths to explain that nowhere he had justified the attacks on the forces, but had asked aloud what he considered, in his opinion, a perfectly legitimate question. “I am equally pained by the killings of jawans and officers as I am by the use of pellet guns and the grievous injuries they cause to innocent civilians, especially children,” he said.

The very same day, he followed up with another Facebook post in which he lashed out against the rhetoric of the warmongers:

“Those who are advocating war are the real anti-nationals. These people are not satisfied with the blood of our soldiers, they want more of our soldiers to die. These people won’t participate in war themselves, rather they would deliver lectures on false patriotism.”

“I anticipated I would be branded as an anti-national, and hence wanted to address this issue in my second post. I am of the firm opinion that war serves no purpose, and those advocating for full-blown war are cowards and the real deshdrohis [anti-nationals]. I have desh prem [love for country], but am not a desh bhakt [devotee],” Sengupta told Newsclick.

The reactions to these two posts were fast and furious, and the LIC suspended him without giving him a hearing, stating in a notice pasted on his doorstep (since he was away in Calcutta): “The views expressed are against the ethos of the LIC and LIC condemns any anti-national conduct.”

As of now, Sengupta has not approached the police out of fear of facing more vindictiveness, and has been granted 10 days to reply to the show-cause notice.

While it is considered kosher for an Indian academic settled abroad to write an OpEd in an international publication criticising the Indian army’s “occupation” of Kashmir, their fellow citizens in India have to face fire and brimstone for expressing a similar view on social media.

Saurav is an independent journalist based out of Delhi, and specialises in reporting on legal, human rights and gender issues. He earlier used to teach media law and jurisprudence in Bombay and in Pune. He tweets @SauravDatta29.

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