The suicide by a young Rajasthan farmer at the kisan rally of the Aam Aadmi Party in New Delhi on Wednesday, in full view of the police and all those gathered, including the AAP leadership, morally condemns us all. Available accounts indicate that the Delhi police contingent on duty merrily looked on. AAP leaders on the dais lifted not a finger to organise a rescue effort as the tragedy unfolded step by step before people’s eyes. Indeed, there was no break in the speeches. The ghastly incident might have been a not-to-be-interfered-with dramatic spectacle.
It is a comment on the AAP that its leaders later spoke of the hair-raising episode being a political “conspiracy” against their party. From the leadership file, someone even spoke in mocking tones to say that the next time around Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP supremo and Delhi’s chief minister, would be asked to climb a tree to save those intent on taking their lives by hanging from a branch.
Our political class shows insensitivity to the plight of ordinary citizens on an everyday basis, but the horror of Wednesday marked the AAP out as being particularly impervious to what happens to the people once the speeches are done and the high moral ground has been scaled through high decibels.
It cannot have escaped notice that the rally of farmers was called to focus the attention of the nation on the grave situation our agriculturists are facing as a result of crop loss following adverse weather, and the prospect of their condition worsening if the Modi government’s amended land acquisition bill were to go through. And here was a seriously distressed farmer proclaiming his helplessness to the world at a political rally with no one bothering with him, including the big shots spewing political rhetoric.
This indeed is turning out to be the principal characteristic of the party that had brought the farmers to Delhi. Its leaders showed they had no empathy for those engaged in agriculture and were out just to make a political point. The goings-on in AAP in the recent past have filled its supporters with dismay. The expulsion earlier this week of four founder-members, including Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, for daring to dissent and forcefully challenge Mr Kejriwal, and the demotion of the party’s leader in Parliament for publicly backing the dissenters, has brought the party no laurels.
Mr Kejriwal’s much acclaimed leadership brought his party stunning victory in the February election in Delhi but the signs of implosion were available earlier. It appears that the AAP leader seeks to use his unassailable position in the Assembly to squelch all inner-party opposition and settle scores. But politics is a slippery road.
