We are resilient by Force, not by Choice - A Wednesday.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Suicidal Irony !

(On Farmer Committing Suicide in Bhopal.)


For the first time I paid (more) attention to a farmer’s suicide. I got two insights in the matter: one yesterday, one today.


Lets talk of today. I earlier thought that farmer’s suicide is an issue of states like Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka, even Bihar and UP, and the central government is ‘doing its best’ (announcing packages and debt relief funds, was it 60,000 crore?) to save them. I thought it never happened in Madhya Pradesh, so this suicide is a rare occurrence and must not bother us more.


But then I came across the data of farmer’s suicide in MP and was completely shocked to know that MP stands fifth in number of farmer’s suicide in the country with 1232 suicides, the top four states being Maharashtra (4238), Karnataka (2135), AP (1797) and Chhattisgarh (1593). As we know this is government data the actual figure would be much higher.


Coming over to the second point, we all are missing a crucial point in this suicide. While in all other places farmers commit suicide after being unable to pay the debts back, the farmer here was even denied the opportunity to take a loan by the corrupt government officials.


Adding to that, the road to thousands always starts with a single person and this is a very tragic and serious incident which may set precedent for all the other farmers facing similar situation, if the matter is not handled properly. The Tehsildar and Patwari have been suspended but a suspended officer can be reinstated. This can’t be termed as justice, action should be swift and stern against such officers, so that nobody dares to do something like this in the future, that’s the least we can do for people like him.


Please don’t call these people unfortunate because they are the victims of a well-planned and structured conspiracy not that of bad-luck and destiny. And we all are not only a part of the conspiracy but also active contributors.