Political blame game over farmers suicide

New Delhi: Tragedy usually unites but political parties are seldom known to have displayed such camaraderie. The suicide of a farmer from Rajasthan at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Wednesday while the Aam Aadmi Party was holding a rally against the BJP-led NDA government has started an ugly and bizarre war of words between different political outfits.

The man, identified as Gajendra Singh, climbed a tree as top AAP leaders were present at Jantar Mantar, near Parliament, and hanged himself with a piece of cloth. Even as some people climbed up to save him, the branch gave away and he fell. Gajendra Singh, a resident of Nangal Jhamarwada village in Dausa, also left a suicide note stating that he had three children and had been disowned by his father due to crop damage after recent rains and hailstorm.

His tragic death had led to a blame-game between AAP, BJP and Congress with none of the parties showing any kind of remorse and instead pointing fingers at their rivals. While the BJP blamed AAP for the suicide, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal accused the police of inaction and said it was an attempt to "sabotage" his party's rally. He also taunted the media for not saving Singh. His party colleague Ashutosh made a ridiculous comment that AAP workers are not trained to climb trees and so they failed to save the farmer.

AAP leader Kumar Vishwas too trained guns at the controversial Land Acquisition Bill and alleged that the farmer's suicide had exposed the Central government. "We will not let his sacrifice go in vain and continue our fight against Land Acquisition Bill. Government should be sensitive towards the farmers' issue," he said. The Congress blamed the Modi government for farmers' distress. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said farmers are being punished by the Modi government.