An activist of the youth wing of the opposition Congress Party burns a banner of Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, during a protest over the suicide by a farmer at a rally on Wednesday, in New Delhi yesterday.

Agencies/New Delhi


Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday urged all political parties to work together to help troubled farmers after one of them hanged himself at a protest over planned land reforms.
News channels were dominated by the fallout over Gajendra Singh’s suicide the day before in front of hundreds of people at a rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party against Modi’s plans to make it easier for businesses to acquire land.
Singh, reportedly a father of three from the desert state of Rajasthan, was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital after hanging himself from a tree during the protest in the centre of New Delhi.
A sombre-looking Modi asked his colleagues and rivals to join hands to help farmers battle an “age-old problem” of suicide, often triggered by devastated crops due to unseasonal rains.
“We are many parties but this is a huge nation and we need to work together,” he told lawmakers in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
“I welcome any suggestions to help our farmers and I assure you that the government will consider them.”
Wednesday’s rally, which was organised by Delhi’s ruling party, was the latest of a series of opposition protests against Modi’s push to make it easier to buy farmland for development projects. Several fresh protests were staged across the capital yesterday as a row over who was to blame for Singh’s death intensified.
While Modi’s opponents say the suicide was an understandable reaction to the land bill, some followers of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) say that AAP organisers should have stopped Singh’s hanging.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked that the incident not be exploited and echoed Modi’s request to “put our heads together and come to a solution.”
“The incident is indeed very shameful and unfortunate and it should not be politicised,” the minister said.
He also denied allegations that the police did not do enough to save the farmer.
“The police informed the control room as they had to get ladders to climb the tree. They also asked people to stop clapping,” he said, adding that the crowd, even after being asked not to do so kept on clapping.
The home minister said some people then climbed the tree and as they tried to get hold of the farmer, he fell off.
“He was taken to hospital in a police van where the doctors declared him dead,” Singh said.
He, however, did not say anything against the AAP, which had accused the police of being responsible for the death.
Meanwhile, the farmer was cremated in his native village in Rajasthan. His family hit out at the AAP over his death, saying no leader tried to dissuade him.
“Why did no one try to stop him from climbing the tree? Why did no AAP leader try to dissuade him? There are lots of questions that remain to be answered. We hold police and the AAP leadership responsible for the death. If any of them had acted swiftly, he could have been saved,” Gajendra Singh’s uncle Gopal Singh said.
Earlier in the day, Gajendra Singh was cremated in his native village Nangal Jhamarwara in Dausa district. Teary-eyed people shouted slogans as his last rites were performed.
Gopal Singh even raised questions about the suicide note, saying the handwriting does not seem to be that of Gajendra Singh.
“He was troubled and disturbed for the last couple of months but no one in the family could ever think or believe that he would commit suicide,” he said.
Scores of debt-laden farmers have suffered damage to their winter crops from unseasonal hail storms and rains, with media reporting a string of suicides in recent weeks.

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