New Delhi, Apr 23: Escalating the blame game over Wednesday’s farmer suicide at Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal’s rally here, Union home minister Rajnath Singh Thursday slammed AAP supporters for “clapping and raising slogans” as the man inched closer to death. AAP hit back, saying Singh was”lying.”The Congress, which mounted a major offensive on theBJP-led NDA government over the land acquisition ordinance,demanded a judicial inquiry. “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 mind but here the crowd kept clapping and raising slogans,” Singh said,responding to an impromptu debate on the matter in Lok Sabha.
The minister also defended Delhi Police, facing theaccusation of doing nothing to prevent the incident,saying it took prompt steps to tackle the situation by calling the police control room and seeking help from the fire brigadeto bring Gajendra Singh down from the tree. The 41-year-old Singh, a distressed farmer from a village in Dausa in Rajasthan, had ended his life by hanging himself from a tree at a rally by AAP to protest the land ordinance. In a note scribbled by him that he dropped from his precarious perch, Singh had said he was thrown out of his home by his father after the crop loss.
“Home minister is lying and giving misleading statements.It is the Union government’s ploy to target AAP using theDelhi Police. Media recorded the incident as it happened and should put out the tapes in public to establish the truth,”party spokesperson Sanjay Singh said. “You must have seen that we were requesting the police to rescue him. Please show the truth as to whether we have incited anyone. At least tell the truth on the floor of the house,” senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said.
The leaders, however, parried questions about news reportsthat the farmer was invited to the rally by deputy chiefminister Manish Sisodia. Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, sought a judicial probe to fix accountability, saying Delhi Police, in the dock over the incident, cannot probe itself.
Meanwhile, the dead farmer’s body was cremated in his home village in Rajasthan, to where leaders of various political parties made a beeline to express their “anguish.”
