Penury had pushed Resham to farm stir

Resham Singh — the farmer who ended his life by consuming poison at the Shambhu border with Haryana — always wanted to have a large piece of land, a dream which took away even a small land parcel he possessed.

His brother-in-law Sukhdev Singh said the 52-year-old farmer had sold his two and a half acres over two decades ago to fund his dream of owning a big chunk of land in Uttar Pradesh.

“As land prices were low in UP, Resham sold his land here,” said Sukhdev Singh. Though Resham managed to buy some land in UP, his purchase was caught in litigation. His despair and loss moved him closer to the farm movement as he had been a part of the most farm protests.

Dr MS Sidhu, a former head of the economics department at Punjab Agricultural University, admitted that suicides outside of the Malwa region of Punjab are not too frequent. “These happened mostly in the cotton belt. And nearly 75% of the suicides have been committed by marginal farmers, who own one-third of the total land holdings,” he said.

Dilbagh Singh Pahuwind of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee said, “It has shocked us all. Resham was finding it hard to manage his expenses but committing suicide is not acceptable.”