SUICIDE, THEY SAID; RATHORE CAN’T CONFIRM OR DENY

Let us get one thing right. Gajendra Singh Rathore did not commit suicide. There is no evidence as yet pointing to this, even though his accidental death came about in public glare and in front of television cameras.

And yet the entire public, media and political discourse for the last 24 hours has steered towards the suicide option.

Who did this, who benefited, these questions are no longer pertinent. The fact is that the three parties, the BJP, the Congress and the AAP, whom Rathore unsuccessfully courted in a bid to become a politician, find themselves in a blame game over his death within and without Parliament, the streets of Delhi, in television studios and the social media.  An opportunity exploited, an agenda set.  Period.

We don’t know if Rathore wanted to die. We don’t know if he meant to commit suicide by leaving a note which did not talk about taking his own life. We don’t know if he was trying to catch every one’s attention, of his own volition or otherwise. We don’t know if his foot lost its grip at an unfortunate moment. We will never know.

Yet, we all ‘know’ his is a case of suicide. Strange. The case swiftly reached a closure once this conclusion was manufactured and viralled minutes after Rathore’s last breath and long, long before his body was reduced to ashes.

The post-mortem report is not yet out at the time of writing. It is expected sometime tonight. What will it say? Suicide? No idea. But then who is bothered about a post-mortem report? Time and politics don’t wait for anybody.

It is despicable to even obliquely refer to how the political blame game unfolded in the nation’s capital in the last 24 hours. It is barbaric and the fruit of either evil or empty minds.

By this afternoon, the manufacturers of consent had done everything possible short of declaring Rathore a martyr to turn the blame game into a point-scoring game. Elections are not around, even a by-poll is not on the horizon, so why such hara-kiri?

It is not that Rathore comes from a poor family. It is not that his family has been devastated by extensive damage to their crops by unseasonal rain. Yet the suicide tag will ensure that compensation in the form of money – of vice-versa – will flow in the family’s coffers in the coming days. Who knows if there’d be a statue of Rathore in his native village before the year is out?

Come think of it, the suicide tag is convenient for everyone else too!

Take the Congress. Vanquished, driven out of Delhi, it was a stick to beat the AAP with, an opportunity to regain political currency.

Take the BJP. Vanquished, despite Modi’s charm, in Delhi, it was an opportunity to show AAP as a selfish party without scruples.

Take the AAP.  The usurper of Delhi is yet come up with a strategy to exploit the suicide which isn’t laughable though it came handy for the party to once again bemoan the lack of control over the Delhi Police.

Take the good Samaritans, the NGOs, even the media. For them, the equation was quite simple. Farmer + suicide. Put two and two together, it’s focus time on the growing number of farmers’ suicides across the country, specially after massive crop damages due to unseasonal rains. Notwithstanding the fact that farmers were dying in their hundreds long before Rathore even got up the tree.

How many different agendas has this suicide tag set and served! RIP, Rathore.