The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Monday, October 16, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Farmer commits suicide
From Vimal Sumbly
Tribune News Service

LUDHIANA, Oct 15 — Yet another farmer died under mysterious circumstances allegedly after feeling depressed over the failure to sell his paddy at the desired price. Thirty-year-old Harbans Singh of Jogimajra village in Payal tehsil reportedly committed suicide near a water pump in his farm after returning depressed from a nearby mandi, as he found no buyers for his crop.

While the family members deny that Harbans Singh committed suicide, most of the villagers claim otherwise. According to family members, Harbans woke up “quite hail and hearty” on Thursday morning and went to a nearby mandi with half of the paddy he had harvested a day before. On reaching the mandi with his harvest, he however, felt panicky as he found heaps of paddy already lying unclaimed in the mandi. Disgusted and disappointed, his hopes of getting a good price were shattered and he returned to the village a depressed man.

Instead of returning straight to his home, he reportedly went to his fields and sat there for sometime. The family members quoted some of the villagers that Harbans was last seen alive near a water pump in his fields in the afternoon. But he never returned home alive. As the family members got worried they began searching from him, only to find his body lying unclaimed in the ripe paddy fields that had only been half harvested.

A number of neighbours had gathered at his residence to mourn his death. Harbans was a bachelor. Both his parents had passed away when he was quite young. His two sisters and a brother are married. His brother is a truck driver and he himself used to look after his 6-acre land.

Harbans’ uncle, Gurmeet Singh, while denying that his nephew committed suicide, admitted that he died of acute depression. Gurmeet Singh revealed that Harbans was a normal person and hardly had any health problem.

However, the villagers have a different story to tell. While nobody was prepared to go on record, they maintained that he committed suicide. According to the villagers, the family members were not prepared to admit it as they feared that it would lead to so many complications involving the police, which they want to avoid. Harbans Singh was cremated without a post-mortem examination as his relatives and villagers found him in the fields itself.

Harbans Singh was a small-time farmer with little land holding of about 6 acres. His modest and incompletely built house reflected best the circumstances the family is living through. Like most countryside farmers, Harbans Singh had also reportedly incurred some debt. Agriculture is the main vocation of the family.

Notwithstanding the denials by the administration, Harbans is the fourth farmer in the district and fifth in the state whose death is related to the paddy crisis. Others include 56-year-old Teja Singh of Holl village near Malerkotla, 75-year-old Labh Singh in Landa village near Doraha on the GT Road, 60-year-old Surjit Singh of Kotli village in Payal tehsil. Another farmer 55-year-old Avtar Singh of Kakra village in Sangrur district also allegedly committed suicide by jumping into the Bhakra canal due to failure to find buyers for his paddy.

However, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sandhu told TNS today that after thorough investigation it had been found that the deaths were natural and “it is wrong to link them with paddy procurement”.

Did Dhindsa threaten to quit?
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 15 — Did the Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs,Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, threaten to quit the Cabinet on the paddy issue ?

Informed sources say that the Shiromani Akali Dal had even convened a meeting of its Political Affairs Committee for this evening where Mr Dhindsa would have offered to step down in protest against the “harassment of Punjab farmers by the central procurement agency”. The meeting did not take place as the demands of the farmers were conceded by the Union Government.

Fortunately for the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, the issue was amicably resolved earlier in the day during a meeting of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, with some Union Cabinet ministers.

The BJP ministers in the Punjab Council of Ministers — Mr Balramji Dass Tandon and Mr Madan Mohan Mittal — played a significant role and persuaded Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Public Distribution and Food, to see reason and respond positively to the demands of the Punjab farmers.

Mr Mittal reportedly escorted Mr Shanta Kumar from Himachal Pradesh to New Delhi in the Punjab Government’s helicopter this morning.

In fact, Mr Dhindsa, the lone representative of the state in the Union Cabinet, has just returned from the USA. He had gone there immediately after the election of his son, Mr Parminder Singh, from Sunam.

Upset over the plight of the farmers, Mr Dhindsa, a general secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal, reportedly made up his mind to walk out of the Union Council of Ministers in case the demands of the Punjab farmers were not accepted by the Union Ministry of Food.

He was reportedly of the conviction that he could neither express his “helplessness” nor do anything himself as the portfolio of Food was with someone else. He could not even remain “quiet” on the matter, being a part of the Shiromani Akali Dal — a political party priding itself on the strength of its following among farmers.

Besides, as the party was a partner in the NDA government, it would have been difficult to defend it against the charge that it had failed to protect the farmers’ interests.

He reportedly conveyed his sentiments to the Chief Minister who wanted him to wait until the outcome of the talks with the Union Finance and Food Ministers. Mr Dhindsa also attended this morning’s meeting before which Mr Badal had talked to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani.

Before going to Delhi, the Shiromani Akali Dal had convened a meeting of its Political Affairs Committee for 6 p.m. today.

Sources point out that even during the meeting with Mr Yashwant Sinha and Mr Shanta Kumar, Mr Dhindsa made no secret of his feelings and made it clear that it would be impossible for him to continue as part of the Union Council of Ministers until justice was done to the farmers of Punjab.