Farmer's Tragic Suicide Unleashes Political Drama In Delhi

By M.Santhiran NEW DELHI (India), April 24 (Bernama) -- The death of farmer Gajendra Singh from Rajasthan at a political rally turned into a political drama here, with political parties pointing fingers at one another. The tragic incident that happened a stone's throw from the Parliament building also saddened Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had just returned from a successful three-nation trip to Germany, France and Canada. "Gajendra's death has saddened the nation. We are deeply shattered and disappointed. Condolences to his family," twitted Modi. Gajendra, father of three, was reported to have climbed a tree overlooking the rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and hung himself in view of thousands of people gathered at the rally. Police discovered a suicide note that stated Gajendra was forced to take the extreme step because he had been turned out of his family home by his father due to a destroyed harvest recently. The incident sent shockwaves across India and highlighted the plight of thousands of rural farmers who are faced with crop failures due to unpredictable weather or being evicted from their land. The tragedy occurred within an hour after the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that the monsoon season this year would bring less rain to most parts of India due to the El-Nino phenomenon. For the last few weeks local media here in the capital highlighted hundreds of farmer suicides mostly in the state of Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh and Mathya Pradesh where heavy rains had destroyed crops. Some of the reports quoted farmers as saying that they were compensated less than US$15.81 (1,000 rupees) by the union government for the damaged crops. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of AAP was present when the incident took place at the rally and he continued with his speech even after the incident. This prompted AAP's two main rivals, BJP and the Congress, to criticise him for his callous attitude. They also blamed Delhi police for failing to prevent the incident. In a tit for tat, the war of words escalated via local media with AAP leaders blaming Modi's BJP government for attempting to "bulldoze through" the controversial land bill that may cause many of the farmers to lose their land. --BERNAMA