Indian farmer hangs himself in public at protest against land reforms in Delhi

Gajendra Singh is the latest farmer to commit suicide due to worsening conditions

Indian farmer Gajendra Singh. (Chandan Khanna| AFP)

An Indian farmer hanged himself in public in the nation's capital to protest against the government's reform of land purchasing laws.

Gajendra Singh climbed a tree in Delhi during an Aam Aadmi Party rally and committed suicide in front of hundreds of protestors. He joins a list of around 40 farmers to have taken their life in recent weeks. Estimates suggest roughly 300,000 farmers across the subcontinent have killed themselves in the last 20 years.

Singh's suicide was not expected by organisers of the rally, who quickly rushed the farmer to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.

Kumar Vishwas, from the Aam Aadmi Party, criticised police at the scene for not responding quickly enough. "The police were acting like mute spectators," he said. "We urged them several times to take action but they did not pay any heed to us. So our members scaled the tree immediately and took the man down."

Singh's suicide note said that his father had forced him from the family home after rainstorms had destroyed their crops and left him with nothing.

"I have three children. I don't have the money to feed my children. Hence, I want to commit suicide," Singh had written.

"A man commits suicide when he finds all the avenues of his life are closed. Nobody heard his misery so he had to take his life," said Jitendra Singh, a neighbour of Gatendra's, who live outside the town of Dausa in Rajasthan.

According to official estimates, heavy rains have damaged 30 per cent of the crops in Rajasthan, although farmers in the region suggest the scale of the destruction has been far greater.

Singh's uncle told reporters the family had nine acres of land where they grew wheat, but that all the crops had been destroyed and they had received no compensation from the government. State officials have promised financial aid to farmers affected by poor weather, but activists say such payments have not arrived due to bureaucracy and corruption.

The situation for farmers is not helped by rising prices for seeds and fertilisers that have caused many impoverished farmers to turn to loan sharks for assistance.

The Aam Admi party argues that the government, under BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has shifted from subsidy to investment when it comes to farming, and that proposed changes to land acquisition will make it easier for the government and businesses to buy farmers' lands. They accuse Mr Modi of being "anti-farmers".

The Modi administration countered that there was no direct link between farmer suicides and government policy, and that the rise in deaths was due to the difficult weather conditions in recent months.