A pall of gloom hung heavy at Jantar Mantar hours after the incident with the usual cacophony missing from this popular protest site. The long stretch of Jantar Mantar road saw small groups of people (protestors and members of the general public) discussing how ‘an ordinary protest had gone horribly wrong’.
“The man is dead we hear,” said a youngster (who didn’t want to be named). He had come for a late lunch at Jantar Mantar. “I voted for a change in Delhi and look what is being associated with this party now. Who can believe that a man committed suicide by hanging himself in the middle of a sea of people and police?” he added.
Policemen deployed here refused to answer any question and said: “Go watch TV; it is all over the news. Why are you asking us about what happened.”
“Do the politicians really care?” asked Chandan, a driver who works in Central Delhi and had also come to ‘see’ the spot where the death happened. “The politicians can say anything and visit the mortuary a thousand times but this incident has once again proved that the BJP, Congress and AAP are all the same. The common man is on his own.’’
Expressing her ‘disgust’ at the politics being played out after the accident, Usha Lamba from Shamilar Bagh who had come shopping to Janpath Market and hopped over to ‘see’ the spot said: ``All the political parties without exception are trying to make the best of this painful accident. Ask any politician the name and age of the person and I bet no one will know. For them he is just another farmer who unfortunately died a very public death and now the public wants to know why it wasn’t prevented or what is driving the farmers in the country to this horrible state of affairs.’’
