DELHI WATCHES FARMER KILL HIMSELF, HIGHLIGHTS APATHY TO DEEPENING AGRARIAN DISTRESS

NEW DELHI: The 41 year poverty hit Gajendra Singh has with his death highlighted the indifference and the complete apathy of the political classes to the plight of the farmers. Singh did not kill himself in a hamlet in Rajasthan, or near a cotton field in Andhra Pradesh but in full view of the ruling elite, the police, the media in the heart of New Delhi. And even so not a finger stirred to save him, with the police refusing to climb the tree from where he hung himself saying, “is that our job now, to climb trees.”

The death captured by the cameras has shaken both governments, at the centre and Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party led government is on the backfoot insisting that the issue is too serious to be politicised, and the Aam Aadmi Party at whose rally for the farmers Singh killed himself, is virtually gasping for breath. The ensuing storm engulfed Parliament as soon as it conveneD, with the Opposition uniting in the Lok Sabha to lambast Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government; and the Rajya Sabha adjourning repeatedly on the same issue.

Gajendra Singh’s agony expressed through his quiet suicide at a venue where thousands had gathered for a rally, reflects really how ignored the agrarian crisis is. The Indian farmer has become invisible with the level of his distress not understood or recognised by the rest of the country largely because of the ruling dispensations preoccupation with neo-liberal policies, and the media’s obsession with the rich and the powerful. Agrarian distress that has not been alleviated despite promises galore, continues to eat into the meagre reserves of the small farmers in particular who are unable to cope with the continuous onslaught on their livelihood. The failure of the kharif crop is one major blow that most of the farmers are finding it difficult to withstand even as the government refuses demands to waive loans, and grant more relevant subsidies. And remains more interested in laws legalising the acquisition of land.

Parliament reflected the political hypocrisy in good measure. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in response to pious speeches by Opposition leaders most of whom had little for the farmers in their time in power at the centre, and in the states, said little by way of concrete suggestions. His emphasis was on 1) the issue should not be politicised and 2) the government and the opposition should work together to alleviate their misery. There was nothing concrete from Singh by way of what could be done.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also intervened with homilies. He pointed out that the issue was “old” and not new, and that all political parties should get together to find a solution.”There is nothing more important than a farmers life,” he said. He stressed the need for all political parties to examine the shortcomings and see what could be done. He said that the government was open to all recommendations.

The government, in other words, again passed off the responsibility of the agrarian crisis just as the Congress led UPA government had before, for the past ten years. Several recommendations of measures to be taken have been submitted to the government and the concerned ministries by committees and experts that have not been taken on board. The Left parties have also pinpointed the cause of the crisis as the neo-liberal policies of governments that create obstacles in giving subsidies to farmers, in waiving their loans, in purchasing their produce in time of crisis, and providing relief to the small farmers and the landless labourers who work on land. The Land Acquisition Bill that the Modi government has made a prestige issue is also adding to the problem with the farmer traumatised now about losing the little land he owns.

It was, thus, strange to see a Parliament bemoaning the farmers fate on the one side, and refusing to recognise the validity of the many measures that have been suggested for the past several years to alleviate the farmers suffering. The Congress that is now batting for the poor and the oppressed was as immune to the spate of suicides while it was in power, as the BJP seems to be know.

Meanwhile a war has broken out between the Aam Aadmi party and the BJP government. Minister Rajnath Singh defended the role of his police who virtually watched the poor farmer hang himself without lifting a hand, maintaining that a fire brigade had been summoned for the ladder to reach the farmer; and that the police had been cautioning those --AAP workers---who were laughing and clapping and egging on Gajendra Singh as he climbed up the tree, and tied the cloth to himself and a branch of the tree. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters insisted that the police did nothing to help, and finally AAP volunteers were left with no choice but to try and free the farmer from his self created noose. It was not clear why the police, present in great strength at the AAP rally, had not intervened to stop the farmer from climbing the tree in what could have also constituted a breach of security.

The media too was blamed in Parliament for taking videos without lifting a hand to help save the farmer who committed suicide in full view, while Delhi’s power elite watched and stepped in only after he was dead to point fingers, and blame the other for what all present could have stopped.