As the issue of farmers’ suicide rocked both Houses of Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the problem of farmers needed to be resolved collectively with readiness to assess the “wrong track” that was taken in the past or in the last ten months. In his brief intervention in a debate in the lok Sabha on the issue, the Prime Minister expressed his willingness to accept any suggestion with an open heart, pointing out that farmers’ problems are old, deep-rooted and widespread.
He asked members to suggest how future of farmers could be secured. “Samuhik sankalp saamane aaye.. (a collective resolve be there)” Modi said. “Yesterday’s incident has caused pain to the entire nation. Members here also expressed the pain. I share the pain,” Modi said about the suicide committed by a farmer from Rajasthan at a rally organised by Aam Aadmi Party in the national Capital.
The Prime Minister, who spoke after Home Minister Rajnath Singh, responded at length to an impromptu debate on farmer’s suicide and maintained that nothing was more important than a farmer’s life or for that matter a human life. Modi said farmers need to be given help and from time-to-time his Government did whatever could be done for them.
The issue of Gajendra Singh’s suicide in Delhi generated a lot of heat in the lok Sabha with the Congress giving a notice for adjournment motion on the matter and seeking a discussion immediately. Congress members KC Venugopal, Rajeev Satav, Deepender Singh Hooda and Ravneet Singh Bittu; Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy; CPM’s MB Rajesh and P Karunakaran had given notices for suspension of Question Hour.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan disallowed the notice amid uproar as Congress members trooped into the Well of the House shouting slogans like “Kisan virodhi sarkar nahi chalegi (down with anti-farmer government)”. They were joined by members of the JD(U) and the SP. The House was adjourned until noon. After the House resumed proceedings, the Speaker permitted a discussion on the issue.
Giving sequence of events leading to farmer’s suicide, the Home Minister did not accept that there was any “police inaction” and sought to criticise, albeit indirectly, the AAP for going ahead with the rally after the incident on Wednesday. To stress his point against the AAP, he referred to the comments made by an MP of that party that had he been there he would have cancelled the rally immediately.
He said the crowd gathered for the AAP rally “clapped” and “raised slogans” as Gajendra Singh climbed up the tree and ended his life. “The crowd was clapping. Police requested them to stop raising slogans. Generally, such people (who try to end their lives) are engaged in talks to turn their attention, but here the crowd kept clapping and raising slogans,” he said.
The Home Minister said that the police took prompt steps to tackle the situation by calling the police control room and ordering help from the fire brigade to bring him down from the tree. Rajnath maintained that States have been asked to compensate farmers whose crops have been damaged in unseasonal rain. He said the States have been asked to draw from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) which would be reimbursed by the Centre later.
Reacting to Opposition’s comments, Rajnath wondered who was pro and anti-farmer and sought to say amidst protest from Congress benches that they had waived farmers’ loan “during election year”. In this context, Rajnath also referred to a CAG report (2011-12) saying “it is kind of scam” which prompted Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge to say there was no need for “an election speech”.
Many members were critical of the police personnel, pubic and media present there for not doing anything as the farmer ended his life. Drawing a parallel with the farmer’s suicide, Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) referred to student’s burning during Mandal agitation and wondered “was it neededIJ” “How can society be so callous and unsympatheticIJ,” he went on to say and again referred to “Sati tradition” 300 year ago which, he said also used to be glorified. Mahtab saw suicide by farmer “as a cowardly act”.
Some of the members, including Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, sought a judicial probe to fix accountability, saying police is in a dock over the matter and it cannot probe itself. Rajeev Satav (Cong) sought action against the Commissioner of Delhi Police to send out a strong message to the force. Kirit Somaya (BJP) asked for sensitive dealing of the issue and need to maintain dignity of the House. He said there was need to go to the root of farmers’ problems which would be not resolved by merely by loan waiving.
Participating in the discussion, Bhagwant Mann (AAP) took a dig at Modi while speaking on farmers’ problems which did not go down well with Speaker who ordered expunction of his statement, triggering strong protests from the Opposition, including Congress and TMC in the the lok Sabha, forcing the Speaker to promise a reconsideration. Speaker’s contention was that Opposition members were dragging the Prime Minister’s name in almost every debate which was not “fair”.