The suicides at Barnala

The chilling mother-son suicides at Barnala’s Jodhpur village on April 26, provoked by an arhtiya accompanied by policemen, point to one of the many dimensions of the deepening agrarian crisis in Punjab. After Maharashtra, Punjab ranks number two in the country in farmer suicides. Yet this has not disturbed the political leadership’s calculated silence. In his ‘sangat darshan’ utterances, Chief Minister Badal urges people to be ready for sacrifices, knowing SYL makes a better poll issue than farmer suicides, which could lead to questions about the inadequate official response. 

The arhtiyas enjoy Akali/Congress patronage. Badal once especially flew to Delhi to scuttle an FCI recommendation on direct payments to farmers, bypassing middlemen. He has not displayed similar urgency in dealing with farmers’ issues. First mooted in 2001, the Bill on farmers’ indebtedness has been passed only this year. Arhtiyas are granted a hefty 2.5 per cent commission. Their lending business is protected as the government routes farmers’ cheques through them. If still a farmer defaults on a loan, police help is available, as it happened in Barnala. A video of the Barnala incident shows the young farmer holding a pesticide bottle as policemen watch. Instead of stopping him, policemen threaten a frame-up if he does not pay up, belying official claims that the suicides happened after the police had left. 

This is not an isolated incident. Causes may differ but such deaths have become a daily occurrence. There is rather a sudden spurt in the suicides. Asking universities to count the dead or passing a law to settle farmers’ non-institutional debts will serve a limited purpose. Academic debates over agrarian distress apart, the need is to first immediately stop such suicides. It is better to reach out to a troubled farmer before he takes the extreme step rather than hand over a relief cheque to his bereaved family. If it cannot protect the victim, the police should not at least work for the politically connected arhtiya. A loan default, anyway, is a civil offence.