Twitter
Advertisement

Rajasthan farmer suicide: Opposition gets a martyr in Land Bill

Rajasthan farmer hangs self at AAP Delhi rally in full public view, callous police

Latest News
article-main
Teachers shout slogans and display banners against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal during AAP’s rally against the Union government’s Land Acquisition Bill in New Delhi on Wednesday
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

No one paid much attention to Gajendar Singh when he climbed up a tree, with a broom in hand, at Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital on Wednesday afternoon. There were many like Gajendar who were occupying trees, trying to catch the media attention, at the near 2,000-strong farmers' rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party. It was to be AAP's big moment, as the party had decided to put its weight firmly behind the farmers to raise a political storm over the NDA government's land ordinance. Instead it turned into a tragic farce, where Singh, a farmer from Dausa district in Rajasthan and a father of three hung himself from the tree, in front of stunned thousands, a callous police force and politicians desperate to shirk blame. His death, a statement on all that is plaguing the farmers of the country, was turned into a game of one-upmanship, with each political player trying to blame the other.

The 41-year-old farmer was seen sitting for an hour on a lower branch of one of the trees lining the Jantar Mantar road. As AAP leaders Bhagwant Mann, Ashish Khetan and Kumar Vishwas loudly exhorted the crowd to support AAP in its crusade, and described how the farmers were dying because of the Central government, very few noticed the farmer on the tree, who started to climb on to a higher branch. As he waved his broom at the crowd, as he shouted words inaudible over the din of around 2,000 people, very few paid him much mind, while others thought he was being dramatic for media attention.

Indeed, even as Kumar Vishwas spoke on stage, he said the people who created a ruckus, who were only here to attract attention, were probably planted by rival parties.

It was only around 1:30 pm, a few minutes after CM Arvind Kejriwal arrived on stage, that people noticed that Singh had taken off his white gamcha, tied one end around his neck, the other to the tree. Volunteers immediately alerted Vishwas, who started to ask the man to climb down. With growing urgency in his voice, he begged the police to help the man down and the crowd to aid him. As all eyeballs and cameras swivelled around away from the stage to the big tree, the penny dropped. Gajendra Singh was hanging like a dead weight, his turbaned head lolling on his shoulders, his arms spread eagled along the branches of the tree.

At 1:45 pm, despite heavy police presence on the road, it was a few AAP volunteers who finally struggled up to the topmost branches and struggled to free Singh from his noose. Struggling with a man heavier than them, their panic was visible as they frantically tugged on the white cloth. It seemed impossible for them to bring him down.
As the handful of civilians struggled, eyewitness' accounts say that the police refused to help, telling one man that he would have to get orders from their SHO before they could step in. Another bystander said the police simply shrugged off anyone's pleas to help out.

At 2 pm, for a moment, the whole rally seemed to collectively hold its breath as the gamcha came lose, and then screamed as the heavy body fell towards those waiting to catch it below.

Those who saw Singh on the ground said that by this time his eyes had turned back in his head and tongue hanging out.

As shock turned to anger, the crowd started roaring at the police. Sensing a mob forming, AAP leaders on dais shrugged off their own shock and tried to calm the people.

Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas instructed and pleaded with the crowd to not provoke the police, to not say or do anything that would cause the force to react. Volunteers immediately started controlling the people, getting them to resume their seat, clearing the path for people to take Singh to the hospital, making sure no one picked a fight with the police. Singh's immediate tactic was also to put the entire blame on the police, for not acting at all, for not stopping the man from scaling the tree in the first place.

At 2:10 Singh was brought to the Ram Manohar Lohiya Hospital in central Delhi, and half an hour later, it was announced that he had been dead on arrival. The report released later in the evening said that final cause of death would be ascertained after postmortem examination. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered and the Delhi police Crime Branch will look into it.

As much as the crowd management is to the party's credit, strangely they did not stop the rally. Even though Kejriwal struggled to conceal his shock and appear calm, he only took the mic around 2:30, much after Singh, Vishwas and even Sisodia had spoken. Kejriwal and other leaders saw wisdom in directly confronting the police in the middle of a seething crowd, telling them pointblank that the entire incident was their responsibility. They also saw it to immediately politicise the issue, saying that the police only answered to their masters in the BJP.

In a news briefing a little later, still rattled AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas and Ashutosh tried to defend their actions saying that if they had stopped the rally then and there, the mob would have spiraled out of control. They drew comparisons with Modi's rally in Patna, saying how could a man who continued his speech despite bomb blasts blame them. They had no answer however, for why Kejriwal didn't immediately address the crowd.

How much that silence and the decision to continue the rally will cost the party now remains to be seen.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement