Distraught farmer kills himself steps from India's Parliament to protest plight of India's farmers
Date April 23, 2015 - 7:51AM
Annie Gowen and Rama Lakshmi
The Washington Post, AP
Volunteers of the Aam Admi Party try to rescue Gajendra Singh Rajput, who hanged himself during a farmers' rally in New Delhi. Photo: AP
New Delhi: The mustard seed, sunflower and wheat crops had all failed because of unseasonable rain. So Gajendra Singh Rajput's father pushed him away from the farm, urging him to go find other work to feed their family.
Instead, the father of three came to a farmers' rally in India's capital on Wednesday, climbed a tree and hanged himself - in full view of thousands of horrified onlookers, as well as a large contingent of Delhi police, who witnesses said seemed to be frozen in place.
Onlooker Joginder Deshwar, 30, said that when he saw Rajput tying a noose, he began frantically scaling the neem tree and was the first to reach him.
Shocked protesters gather round the body of the farmer during the rally in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters
"I kept looking down and telling police, 'Help me, help me, please help me,'" Deshwar said. "I caught ahold of his body and brought him down, but by the time we reached the ground, he was already choking."
The public tragedy that unfolded on television focused nationwide attention on the plight of India's farmers, who have suffered mightily from recent unseasonable rain and hailstorms, which damaged more than 24 million acres of crops over 14 states.
More than a dozen debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in India in recent weeks as discontent grows against Prime Minister Narendra Modi who they say has done little to ease the plight of rural communities after crops were damaged by unseasonable rains.
An Indian farmer displays wheat harvested after her crop was damaged in unseasonal rain at Malaca village, Uttar Pradesh state. Photo: AP
Farmers are also angry at a proposed law to make it easier for businesses to buy farmland, that many fear will force them to sell land against their will. The law was the main target of Wednesday's rally, organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Modi's rival party in the capital.
The farmer who died on Wednesday was from the western state of Rajasthan, the government said. Local media reported he left a suicide note stating he had faced losses due to crop failure.
"Deeply pained to hear the news of a farmer committing suicide," India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Twitter.
The government has increased compensation for affected farmers in recent weeks, but advocates say that both national and state-level help has been slow in coming and that more is needed.
"It's sheer desperation. There is no relief and untold damage," said Sachin Pilot, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party from Rajasthan, where the farmer lived. "It reflects the lack of hope in Indian agriculture right now."
Farmer suicides in India are on the rise, according to a December government report, with deaths attributed to crop losses because of bad weather and low prices, as well as to unpaid debts. Pilot said Singh was the 42nd farmer from his home state to commit suicide in the past two months.
"For some months, everybody has been talking about farmers' issues, but there's no attention to the real damage on the ground," said Dharmendra Malik, a spokesman for the Bharatiya Kisan Union, a national farmers union that held a rally in Delhi last month. The farmers are so heavily invested in their land, he said, that "when a farmer faces crop damage, he has nowhere to turn."
Climate experts say India is increasingly at risk for such extreme weather events because of climate change, including last year's erratic monsoon. This year, there is more bad news for farmers: The monsoon season is expected to be dry.
Prime Minister Modi tweeted his condolences to Rajput's family, saying the country was "deeply shattered and disappointed."
"At no point must the hardworking farmer think he is alone," Modi said.
Nagender Sharma, a spokesman for the party in charge of the Delhi government, said that more than 10,000 attended Wednesday's rally to protest a controversial land bill that would diminish some farmers' rights.
The rally had been going on for more than an hour when Rajput began climbing the tree, witnesses said.
Once aloft, Rajput appeared to be shouting slogans and taking part in the protest, but his suicidal intent soon became clear from the white cotton towel he fashioned into a noose.
Sharma said that volunteers rushed to take him down but that he was barely conscious by the time they managed to do so.
Sharma's Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man Party, had organised the rally, just yards from Parliament. The party and its leader, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, were later criticised for carrying on with their speeches even after Rajput's hanging.
Rajput was pronounced dead at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, authorities said. He had left a crumpled suicide note in which he wondered how he could get home, and closed with a popular national slogan from the 1970s, "Hail soldier! Hail farmer!".
For help or information, call Lifeline, 131 114, or visit beyondblue.org.au.
