Despite farmer suicide, govt to table land bill in LS in first week of May

Delhi Police accuses AAP of abetting suicide

The Narendra Modi government today sounded surer about keeping to its plan of tabling the contentious land bill in the Lok Sabha in the current session of Parliament despite the suicide of a farmer at an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rally on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police in its First Information Report (FIR) lodged today accused AAP volunteers and workers of instigating Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, to commit suicide and for obstructing the police from carrying out its duties.

Highly placed government sources, unsure about the fate of the land bill until Wednesday, today said it was erroneous to link the two issues as the suicide of the 41-year-old farmer was ostensibly linked to agrarian crisis and not land acquisition. But they also said the police probe could unearth a more sinister conspiracy that went horribly wrong and ended in Singh losing his life.

It has given the government some comfort that the public discourse, including the discussion on the issue today in the two Houses of Parliament, focused more on the insensitivity of the AAP leadership in continuing with their anti-land bill protest rally at Jantar Mantar even after the suicide.

The Delhi Police, which is under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry, is probing whether the farmer was in contact with one of the AAP top leaders, as has been claimed by his family members. The police will study the call details of Singh.

The last rites of Singh were conducted today at his native place. Both the Congress and BJP Delhi units staged protests against AAP on the issue in Delhi. The issue also rocked both Houses of Parliament, with the Lok Sabha Question Hour getting adjourned when Congress and some other Opposition party members trooped into the well of the House shouting anti-government slogans.

The Lok Sabha later had a two hour long discussion on the issue of agrarian crisis, with members demanding a judicial probe into the suicide incident. Prime Minister Modi, in his intervention, termed the agrarian crisis a "very old, deep rooted and widespread" problem and committed that his government will do all it can to redress the issue.

As for the land bill, it is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on May 5 and then be sent to the Rajya Sabha, according to sources. The government is still hopeful that some non-Congress and non-Left parties, particularly the Samajwadi Party, could bail it out on the land bill in the Rajya Sabha where it is in minority. However, an SP MP said supporting the bill would be difficult in the current climate. The government could take recourse to the mechanism of a joint session if the bill falls in the Rajya Sabha. But a united opposition could delay this by demanding that it be first sent to a select committee before it is discussed and put to a vote in the Upper House.