A
suicide which shook India (First Person Account )
By Gaurav Sharma
New Delhi, April 22 The witty Bhagwant Mann had finished his speech, and his AAP colleague
Kumar Vishwas was tearing into the Narendra Modi government over its land
ordinance when the AAP leader spotted a man seemingly hanging from a Neem tree
at a party rally here on Wednesday.
Halting his speech for a while, Kumar Vishwas loudly ordered the police to get
the man - who turned out be Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan - off the
tree.
The venue was Jantar Mantar, a popular protest site in the heart of the
capital. The Aam Aadmi Party had called the rally against the government's land
ordinance.
I looked up from the media stage. The bearded man with a burly moustache,
sporting a colourful turban, was perched precariously on the branch of the
tree.
From that distance it looked as if he was holding on two branches with his
outstretched hands.
When police did not respond, the AAP leader asked AAP volunteers to do the
rescue act.
Little did he - or Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, seated on the dais -
know that the father of three was already dead, having tied his scarf to a tree
bench, to end a life that his suicide note said was now worthless after the
destruction of his crops by untimely rains.
Three volunteers, among an estimated 4,000 who had packed the square to hear
Kejriwal, quickly climbed the tree. Journalists began to move towards the tree
as well.
In no time, the spotlight shifted from the Aam Aadmi Party stage to the tree.
The volunteers untied the scarf to see if they could somehow save him.
All hell broke loose when Gajendra Singh's limp body fell from a considerable
height with a loud thud as the activists couldn't hold on to him. Frenzied AAP
members began shouting anti-police slogans.
I was among the first journalists to see the man. He was breathless. The tongue
was slightly protruding.
One of the three men who had climbed the tree himself lost consciousness,
probably after he realised that the man may not be alive.
Others clambered up and brought him down after sprinkling water on him.
In the meantime, some AAP members rushed to the dais and spoke, in hushed
tones, to Kumar Vishwas and then to Kejriwal about the unfolding tragedy.
Before police reached the site, photo and video journalists shoved each other
to take pictures.
There was confusion: Was he dead?
Amid all the drama, Kumar Vishwas continued to speak. AAP activists rushed
Gajendra Singh to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, about two kilometres away.
There, doctors declared the man dead.
At the end of the rally, Kejriwal expressed sadness over the incident, implying
he still did not know that the man was dead. He declared that he would go to
the hospital with his deputy, Manish Sisodia.
By then, the incident had ignited a political storm. It was ironic that a rally
called to protest a farmers' issue witnesses the death of yet one more Indian
farmer.
