Did 700 farmers die during the year-long protest at Delhi’s gates?
There’s a blog page, run by none others than farmers’ unions, which has chronicled the deaths “due to farmers’ protest at Delhi Border since November 24, 2020”. It lists 733 casualties.
One intrepid twitterati, Vijay Patel (@vijaygajera), in a remarkable perseverance has investigated these deaths and posted a long thread of tweets.
(Even this list of 733 is bloated as Patel has been able to count them to 702).
Before we get down to a few specific instances Patel has mentioned, let’s take an overview of the breakdown of causes of deaths in a chart.
So, allegedly no less than 307 happened due to Corona; and a further 203 from heart attack; and over a hundred between accidents and alleged suicide. This itself amounts to a share of over 600 out of 702 deaths tabulated.
But people could’ve died out of Corona and heart-attack at the “protesting site” also so let’s first count the actual deaths which happened at the protest sites. So here is a breakdown
The above tweet would show that 191 persons died at the protest sites on Delhi gates. Nearly half of 702 lost their lives while at home.
There were accidents, hit-and-run cases, illnesses and even murders which have made up this list of 702 deaths and a few specific cases are worth our attention.
There is one Sukhpal Singh identified in the list. He was out in his field in his native place when he accidentally drowned in the Beas River.
One Gurlal Singh slipped while trying to board the train at Bahadurgarh railway station. He was crushed by the train. The same happened with Parma Singh. One Jaswinder Singh fell off a tractor and was crushed under it. There was a case of Sukhwinder Singh who succumbed to his injuries in a road accident at PGI Chandigarh.
There were dozens of alleged suicides, a few of them look dubious for as per Vijay Patel, one of a farmer was shown to have injury marks on his face.
The first reported suicide during the protests was of Sant Baba Ram Singh on December 16, 2020. However, a nurse from Chandigarh, Amarjit Kaur, said the suicide not didn’t match the one of dead. She further claimed the circumstances and evident suggest that suicide was impossible to happen.
Another such unfortunate suicide was of Kulbir Singh, who was said, to be under severe stress due to debt. Same was the case with Gurlabh Singh who too was under severe debt of Rs 6 lakhs. Both Ranjeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh Comrade were under debts of Rs 15 lakhs each.
On June 17, 2021 one Mukesh was set ablaze by his fellow farmers after a brawl at Tikri Border. A video of him being set on fire had gone viral on social media.
Now 203 deaths have happened due to heart-attacks which ought to be natural causes and in a country which registers the highest number of such deaths in the world, some 22 lakhs, every year.
Accidents again are not uncommon in India and this list measures up to some 78 such cases in this list. There are hit-and-run cases too which again is not uncommon.
The list also includes murders but, perhaps not strangely, there is no mention of Lakhbir Singh, the Dalit Sikh who was brutally murdered by Nihang Sikhs at the Kundli border protest site in October 2021.
As per the farmer union’s blog, only some 12 died due to Covid-19 while 302 other cases have been referred to merely as due to illness.
Vijay Patel, with tongue firmly in cheek, mentions whether these deaths should be owned by protesting farmers union as its own fault since hardly any Covid protocols were followed during the agitation.
A twitterati Akshini, in response, quotes a Times of India story which mentions that some 2,270 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in last 11 months. She wonders why so-called flag-bearers of farmers and conscientious media is taking no note of such calamity which is thrice the number they are parroting around.
Patel’s thread has taken the twitter by storm with thousands chipping in with their likes and remarks. It suggests that not everyone is convinced at the claims made by farmers union, blown up in media and by Opposition, notably Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
