A farmer on Wednesday committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s presence at the Aam Aadmi Party’s rally in New Delhi.
The man, identified as Gajendra Singh, climbed the tree as top AAP leaders began to speak at the rally in Jantar Mantar, a stone’s throw from Parliament. In full presence of incredulous AAP supporters, the police and the media, he hanged himself with a towel.
As rescuers rushed up the tree to cut him down, the tree branch from which Singh hanged himself gave away and he fell. He was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in a police jeep, where he was declared ‘brought dead’.
A purported suicide note was recovered from the spot in which he reportedly wrote that he is a farmer whose crops were destroyed. The note also contained contact details of his family.
Politics takes precedence over solidarity
Incredibly, senior AAP leaders like Somnath Bharti initially chose to dub the incident as a ‘conspiracy’.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who was addressing the rally chose to blame the police.
We kept asking the police to bring him down. The police may not be in our control but at least there should be a semblance of humanity among them. I am rushing to the hospital with Manish Sisodia.
– Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi also reacted to the incident. “It is a very sad time. I just want to tell the farmers and the labourers not to worry. We will help them,” he said.
I had earlier said that the farmers are being punished by the Modi government. I had said that they only help industrialists. This is causing tremendous pain to the farmers of the country. This is sad. But we will do whatever we can for the farmers. We are going to fight the land ordinance.
– Rahul Gandhi, Congress Vice President
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra took the opportunity to slam the Aam Aadmi Party. Patra questioned why the rally went on even as the suicide was being attempted.
It is very painful to know that politics has become more important than human life. The whole thing was recorded by the media but no leader from AAP got down from the stage.
– Sambit Patra, BJP Spokesperson
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)