THE organised attempts to study the phenomenon of suicides undertaken by the governments of Punjab and Karnataka have proved to be superficial and designed to toe the official line. The committees have come up with ‘intelligent’ arguments blaming individual farmers for the unfortunate incidents rather than working rigorously for a package of comprehensive remedial measures to put an end to the incidents that have assumed the shape of a ‘phenomenon’ in the backdrop of the policies of liberalisation and globalisation. They have a common refrain of blaming it on “alcohol-related problems”, followed by “chronic illness”, “domestic discords” and “family responsibilities”. Surprisingly, the committee that came up with its report in 1998 in Punjab, and the one that produced its report in 2002 in Karnataka, have found more or less the ‘same causes’ to be responsible for suicides in both the states.

Whether India is one in any other respect or not, the state governments of all states, irrespective of the colour of the party in power, are in absolute unity in blaming farmers for the suicides. Although the committees acknowledge heavy indebtedness to be one of the causes, they say that, “no single factor could explain the suicidal cases,” only as a pretext to escape the causes to be remedied. It is most dangerous to have “stomach pain” as it turns out to be terminal in the state of Andhra Pradesh that leads the entire country in terms of number of suicides. All these states have also decided against paying any compensation to the victims' families. However, some states like Karnataka and Punjab had to finally shell out some compensation in view of popular pressures or as election gimmicks. It is also true that these committees advise us to de-link agrarian distress and the suicides. The attitudes of these committees are sufficient indication for the anti-peasant character of the state led by the bourgeoisie and the kulaks.

Where should we locate the causes for the mounting suicides? The causal factors are the skyrocketing input prices, crashing output prices, strangulating usurious capital, lack of public investment, indiscriminate import-export policies, and above all, the pro-rich WTO Agreement on Agriculture, which is the source of the policies leading to death, suicide or starvation. WTO has turned into a merchant of death in the soil of India and the developing countries.

For considerable sections of the farming population, agriculture is increasingly becoming non-remunerative. There is little off-farm rural or urban employment that will absorb those who are thrown out of agriculture. There are no employment opportunities in urban areas to absorb those who are ejected out of rural areas because of abject poverty. Where can they turn to? The small and marginal peasants and agrarian labourers are left with no other option but to remain tied to the unprofitable agriculture, get entangled in debts leading to suicides or to wait for a death due to starvation. You have a choice, between a suicide and starvation. Because, it is the market that rules. It is an all-pervading crisis.

The crisis is not just because of some reasons involving uncertainties of nature, like drought and untimely rains. Rather, it is a man-made crisis, to be precise, a state-made crisis. That is the crisis of world capitalism, which is shared by its Indian version. And, quite understandably, the powers that be have promptly transferred their crisis onto the shoulders of the broad masses, particularly the peasantry. So, it is the crisis of the exploiting classes, of the big bourgeois-big landlord classes who are running the affairs of the state. Otherwise, how can one explain the increasing number of suicides in Anantapur while the climatic condition and the quantum of rainfall have not changed for more than 3 decades? How can one explain farmers committing suicides en masse in the Kaveri river irrigated belt, the home constituency of the Chief Minister of Karnataka, along with those in the drought prone Northern Karnataka? How can one explain the phenomenon of suicides in the agriculturally most prosperous states of Punjab, Maharashtra and Haryana?