Gajendra's suicide: Why Team Kejriwal is to blame

The spin just goes on and on. One problem the AAP faces is that with some rather well connected and loquacious journalists on their core team, the desire to dispense with information to the press is dangerously overwhelming. And equally dangerous is the desire to give out misinformation.

After the tragic and possibly very avoidable death during their anti- land acquisition bill rally, Team Kejriwal is running from pillar to post trying to clear the air from the series of misunderstandings caused by giving out too much "information". After accusations have been thrown at various people, it is now becoming clearer and clearer that Gajendra Singh was obviously a simple man from a village, a little more interested in trying turbans than in farming. He also had dreams of becoming a leader.

He also might have been misled into thinking that if he came to the rally and said he is a poor farmer about to commit suicide, it would get media attention. Who knows, he might have shared these ideas with someone. Certainly the person who helped him write his speech knew his intentions.

The fact was that he had dressed well, and impressively, as though he expected that all eyes would turn towards him, especially when he began to demonstrate an intent to kill himself. Instead, he found that few were interested in him: in a typical urban way the crowds paid little attention. They had all come with their own agendas, and in a sense, only demonstrated far too cruelly our selfish, inward looking attitude towards those who might appear needy. There was no serious attempt made to bring him down from the tree, nor did anyone really try to persuade him. Yet, there was something heartbreakingly innocent with which he tried to carefully put the broom to one side, (the broom, the omnipresent symbol of AAP) before he began to tie the scarf around his neck. The TV cameras recorded all of it...

The other tragedy was that no one among the AAP leadership was bothered enough to understand that this could be a serious suicide attempt. And yet, shouldn't that have been the first thought in the minds of the rally organisers as this was meant to be a rally about distressed farmers, about farmer suicides, a rally for farmers who had lost everything, and could now lose their land as well... and so why wasn't there any attempt to bond with those who were there? Surely a cadre based party, a party of close knit volunteers would have known which farmer came from which part of the country? And what problems and issues they had come with... How is it possible that they had no idea that this very majestic looking farmer had any grievances? He had even written all the problems down, it seems. Did no one even speak to him? What kind of rally was it, where no one knew who was there, or why? Or was it only to collect a crowd who could listen silently to Kejriwal?

There are far too many questions here which have remained unanswered. And with every passing day, this very avoidable death leaves the AAP party ever more discredited.