Shah, Raje meet Gajendra’s family, mum on any promise

JAIPUR: BJP president Amit Shah and chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday visited the bereaved family of farmer Gajendra Singh, who committed suicide at a political rally in New Delhi on April 22.
Raje talked to Gajendra’s 15-year-old daughter Megha and uncle Gopal Singh. The family demanded that whatever compensation for crops loss the government would be distributing to the farmers, should be done in the name of ‘shaheed’ Gajendra.They insisted on the shaheed status for Gajendra. The deceased farmer’s uncle informed the media that the family has also demanded the local Mandi in Bandikui to be renamed after Gajendra.
Shah and Raje held a closed door meeting with family at Gajendra’s village Nangal Jhamarwada. Emerging from the meeting, Shah refrained from interacting with the media.
Shah, along with senior state cabinet minister Rajendra Rathore sat with the family members and other villagers attending the ‘tiye ki baithak’ (condolence meeting) being held outside Gajendra’s house. At the pandal Shah spoke very little and was mostly seen talking to health minister Rathore, who had also visited the family on Friday.
Meanwhile, Raje met the women of the family including Gajendra Singh’s mother and wife. His daughter Megha showed the chief minister a dairy which was maintained by Gajendra Singh in order to point out the difference in handwriting in the suicide note and the dairy. The chief minister assured a fair investigation into his death.
The family complained to Raje about local police’s misbehavior with them when the body of Gajendra was being brought to Bandikui. His family members said that they had requested the police to let them keep the body in the police station for a night as a wedding was going on in their house at that time. The circle officer, however, denied permission and those escorting the body had to keep it some 30 kms from his village at Rajgarh in Alwar district for the night. The family members claimed that the body remained lying on the road for eight hours. The next morning the body was brought to his village once the wedding ceremony was over.
The senior BJP leader reached the village after addressing a BJP rally in Jaipur. He consoled the grieving family members.