Sandipan Sharma - Farmer's death at AAP rally is a blot on our conscience // Why should not Delhi Police be charged with abetment to suicide?
NB - This tragedy took place in full view of
thousands of people, including crucially the Chief Minister of Delhi and
hundreds of policemen and officers. About the AAP leadership who continued with
their speeches without bothering to intervene - the less said the better. Their contempt and disregard for norms of decent public behaviour is public knowledge.
However, whether the police knew or was clueless about what
was happening, is a matter best left to a court of law. All those present
today, especially elected representatives (that means the ministers on the
dais), and the uniformed state officials on duty should be charged with
abetment to suicide. A cognisable offence has taken place. According to one
report, the police cursed and watched as the farmer committed suicide, an officer was
heard saying, “Marne do s**le ko (Let him die).” If no one
acts, maybe the Delhi High Court can take suo moto notice. Let
us see whether all Indians are equal before the law - DS
Ten thousand people, including the Chief Minister of Delhi
and his entire cabinet, security guards, media and dozens of policemen couldn't
save the life of a man in the heart of the capital of India at an event being
telecast live to millions of viewers. Nobody bothered, nobody cared. The show went on; only a life
came to an end. If this isn't a national shame, a collective failure and a
blot on our collective conscience, Gajendra Singh Rajput lost his life in vain.
Predictably, collective hand-wringing has started,
politicians in their crisp linen shirts with Chinese collars and starched
kurtas have begun beating their breasts, blaming their rivals and visiting
hospitals, outrage in TV studios will follow, and for a few angry hours tweeple
will throw hashtags at each other.
For a few days, a week if he is lucky, Rajput’s death will
be talked about; his live suicide would be compared with Peepli Live's
Naththa or Rajeev Goswami, who set himself ablaze to protest the Mandal
Commission recommendations. And then the tragedy vampirism of politicians,
media and their followers will end.
But, it is unlikely that in this entire din anybody will ask
the right questions about Rajput’s death. Sambit Patra has every right to look grim and mourn that Arvind Kejriwal should have
done something to stop Rajput from killing himself instead of continuing with
his bhaashan (speech). Yes, he has every right to berate
Kejriwal for doing exactly what Patra himself shamelessly attempted:
politicisation of the tragic incident.
But, will Patra first ask the Rajasthan chief minister why a
farmer needs to go to Delhi and commit suicide in Vasundhara Raje’s raj? Dausa,
the home district of Rajput, is just an hour’s drive from Rajasthan’s capital
Jaipur. For the past one month, the local media has been continuously writing
about the damage to crops in Rajasthan due to unseasonal rain and hailstorm in
March.
According to government estimates, 33 districts in the state
were hit by calamitous weather; crops in around nearly 21000 villages were
destroyed. Girdwari (field report) prepared by district collectors, estimated a
crop loss to the tune of Rs 8,57,474 crore in the state. Apart from this 41
people lost their lives. If a farmer just an hour away from government help is forced
to kill himself, shouldn't Patra first be raising questions about Raje
government’s sensitivity and competence? Shouldn’t he be worrying about people
in the other 21000 villages?
Kumar Vishwas and Somnath Bharati have the right to wail
that the suicide was a suniyojit (planned) act to tarnish his party’s image and
sabotage the rally. But only a ‘sensitive’ poet like Vishwas can go the
egregious extent of imagining that a father of three children would agree to
sacrifice his life just to demean a politician. It is despicable of AAP leaders
to claim that a man broke his neck just to spite Kejriwal.
In TV footage before he committed suicide, Rajput was seen
holding the AAP party symbol, a jhadoo, and shouting slogans. These are strong
reasons to suggest that Rajput was an AAP supporter—if he wasn’t, he wouldn't
have carried the AAP's symbol to his martyrdom. (Incidentally, it would be
worthwhile to find out how and why Rajput had come to the rally, especially on
a day when there was wedding at his home.)
Shouldn't Vishwas be asking what were Kejriwal and his
entire government doing when the body of one of his supporters was dangling
over his head for nearly an hour? "Kisan khudkushi kar rahe hain aur ye
sarkar kuch nahin kar rahi,” Kejriwal and his cronies alleged from the dais.
Look, who was talking! Instead of leading the anti-Modi diatribe, washing his hands
off the responsibility by saying he had exhorted cops to take some action;
shouldn’t Kejriwal have been leading a rescue operation?
There is a clear law against abatement (sic) of suicide; there is
well-defined punishment for those who fail to help a dying man. Everybody who
was present at the site and didn’t act is guilty of Rajput’s death. None of
them can escape legal and moral culpability for this political homicide. And for those who are playing petty political games, trading
charges, trying to score some quick points, there should be just one message:
go hang your head in shame.
