New Delhi: A farmer from Rajasthan committed suicide on Wednesday at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s rally.
Gajendra Singh, a resident of Nangal Jhamarwada village of Rajasthan’s Dausa district hanged himself from a tree at Jantar Mantar, the venue of Kejriwal’s rally, to protest against the federal government’s Land Acquisition Bill.
The farmer was rushed to the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where Dr Sunil Saxena pronounced him dead on arrival.
The farmer left a suicide note stating that he was a father of three and had been disowned by his father due to crop damaged by the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm.
The suicide resulted in a blame game by various political parties.
While India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was targeted by Kejriwal in his address at the rally, blamed the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of doing nothing to save the farmer, Kejriwal himself blamed Delhi Police by saying it was an attempt to sabotage his party’s rally.
The Delhi chief minister said the police did not listen to him as they were not under his control. Delhi Police report directly to the federal home ministry.
“Delhi Police did not try to stop the farmer from committing suicide,” Kejriwal said.
The most bizarre explanation came from journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh who explained that AAP volunteers were not trained to climbing trees. Hence they failed to save the farmer from committing suicide.
The erstwhile ruling Congress party on the other hand blamed organisers of the rally for the tragedy. According to Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, the organisers did nothing to save the farmer.
“The organisers [of the rally] could have been more sympathetic and more responsible. The police could have been more responsible,” Maken said.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra blamed Kejriwal for not trying to save the farmer.
“Delhi CM kept watching and finished his speech despite knowing that he [farmer] was dead. He kept truth at bay, focused on politics and speech. Humanity died today,” Patra said.
The unfortunate incident saw politicians visiting the Lady Harding Hospital where the dead body was shifted for post-mortem. Kejriwal, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the national vice-president of the Congress party Rahul Gandhi were among those who visited the Lady Harding Hospital.
Gandhi, who had addressed a similar rally in central Delhi’s Ramlila Ground on Sunday, blamed BJP for ignoring farmers leading to distress amongst them.
“We will help the family in transporting the body. I want to tell the farmers that they should not be afraid and that we will help them,” Gandhi said.
Federal home minister Rajnath Singh called Delhi Police commissioner B.S. Bassi and asked for a report on the suicide with instructions to investigate the matter.
The suicide took place in full view of Kejriwal, who did not stop but continued with his speech in which he expectedly blamed the BJP government at the centre for the plight of farmers and announced that he would not allow an inch of land to be acquired in Delhi without consent of farmers.
According to Kejriwal the land bill was aimed to help the super rich and punish the poor and exhorted all farmers of the country to come together to demand better compensation.
