A farmer protesting against the farm laws at the Ghazipur border was found dead in the toilet on Saturday, leading to claims that he had died by suicide. The farmer identified as Kashmir Singh from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district left a suicide note blaming the Central government for forcing him to suicide, reports said. The police are yet to confirm the reason behind the suicide. Another farmer, this time in Madhya Pradesh, had addressed his suicide note to the PM. The 35-year-old farmer in the state’s Chhatarpur village was allegedly being harassed by a power distribution company. In his note to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he requested the PM to hand over his body to the government and sell every part and use the money to repay the pending electricity bill.
On the death at Ghazipur border, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait informed of the news via his twitter handle. He said the deceased farmer, in his suicide note, wished to be cremated at the protest site.
This is not the first time that a farmer at the protest site has died by suicide. A Sikh preacher had died by suicide near the Singhu border on December 16 as he was unable to bear the pain and suffering of farmers and also the treatment given to them by the government. A few days later, one more farmer killed himself in Punjab’s Bathinda after returning from a protest site near the Delhi border on December 19, 2020. He was 22. On December 22, 2020, a 65-year-old attempted suicide by consuming poison at Singhu border. However, he was saved.
The farmers from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and across the country have been protesting against the Centre’s new agricultural legislations since November 26, 2020. The government has projected the laws as a major reform in the agriculture sector that will remove the APMC mandi system and middlemen, and will allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have argued that the new laws will leave them at the mercy of big corporates. They argue that they would settle for nothing less than total scrapping of the legislations.
Regarding the Madhya Pradesh farmer’s death by suicide, media reports said the farmer, Munendra Rajput, was unable to pay a hefty electricity bill of almost Rs 90,000. Rajput owned a small flour mill and is survived by his three daughters and a son. His family members have alleged the power company had seized his mill and his motorbike over dues of Rs 88,000 amid the pandemic. Rajput’s crop was damaged due to which he was unable to pay the power bill, later the company issued notice to the farmer’s family.
In his letter, Rajput wrote when there are scams by big politicians and businessmen, government employees don’t take any action. If they take a loan, they get enough time to repay but if a poor person takes even a small amount of loan, the government would never ask him as to why he was not able to repay the loan.
The victim’s brother, who is employed in the power distribution company, said, his brother died by suicide due to harassment by the power distribution company. He was highly upset and under stress since his flour mill and the motorbike were seized by the power distribution company.
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He told the media that earlier there was an average bill of about Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per month but suddenly a bill of about Rs 88,000 was given to him. The power distribution company officials sent a legal notice to his brother and seized his flour mill and motorbike while his brother was begging for a few more days to pay the bill but the officials refused to listen to him. However, his brother demanded strict action against the company and its officials responsible for the death. The police said they are investigating the matter.