Farmer dies by suicide after greeting PM on his birthday

In a shocker, a frustrated and broke farmer Dashrath L. Kedari, greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday (September 17) and then jumped into a pond to end his life, his family said on Monday.

According to his brother-in-law Arvind Waghmare, the incident took place in Bankarphata village where Kedari was working as a farmer for the past 8 years.

"That day, he seemed very depressed, but he conveyed his wishes of a long life to the PM, and then jumped into the nearby pond and killed himself. A suicide note was recovered later," Waghmare told IANS.

In his suicide note, Kedari wished 'Happy Birthday to You, PM' and then said that it was due to the state government's failure in ensuring Minimum Support Price that he was compelled to end his life as he was hounded by debtors.

He recounted how the state was not giving MSP to onion, tomato and other cultivators who were ravaged by the recent floods and the losses of the pandemic.

"What should we do? You are only concerned for yourself Modi Saheb. We are not begging for alms, but what is rightly due to us. MSP must be given to us as the money-lenders are threatening us. Nobody takes risks like the farmers. Where do we go with our grievances," Kedari said.

Taking strong cognisance, the Shiv Sena Spokespersons Kishore Tiwari and Dr Manisha Kayande slammed the government for its failure on tackling the state agrarian crisis which is in despair with a spate of suicides.

"A farmer greets the PM and then goes on his achita' (funeral pyre), but the PM is busy bringing the 'cheetahs' to the country. This is the sad status in the country," said Dr Kayande.

Tiwari said the PM must immediately come to visit the Kedari family as the state government has failed to solve the problems of farmers, or direct Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to go and console the deceased farmers' kin during her visit to Pune next week.

Kedari, 42, is survived by his wife Shanta and two college-going major children - son Shubham, 20, and daughter Shravani, 18. Waghmare said his brother-in-law hailed from Wadgaon-Anand village and the Alephata Police Station visited the family and registered a case.