Does anybody really believe that people are ready to die for their politicians?

On 31 July, Eshan Reddy, a student of Osmania University, immolated himself on campus. He was making good his word to Goddess Maisamma. He had promised her that if all the 12 legislators who had resigned for a separate Telangana state were re-elected in by-elections, he would sacrifice himself. In his suicide note, he called the Congress candidates ‘traitors’. He also expressed the wish that his body be taken in a procession to the Telangana martyrs’ memorial near the Assembly.

We have heard of people committing suicide in despair when their gods don’t hear their prayers, but killing yourself because what you wanted came true is a new one. But then, Andhra Pradesh is a peculiar state when it comes to people eager to give up their lives for their politicians. Last year, reports said that 67 people died of shock or committed suicide on hearing of the death of YSR Reddy in a helicopter crash. His son, Jagan Mohan, had to request followers to desist from dying. Less than a month ago, three people killed themselves when Chandrababu Naidu and his group courted arrest in Maharashtra over a border dam issue.

But all such numbers and deaths are suspect. Take the death of K Srinivasa Rao, a 47-year-old vegetable vendor, one of the three who died on behalf of Naidu. A local media report had one TDP leader elaborating on how Rao died: “He kept shouting against the cops for the ill-treatment meted out to his leader. He consumed liquor and collapsed on the road.” It sounds like a drunken man suffering a heart attack.

In India, committing suicide is seen as anything but a sign of mental illness. The law considers it a crime, wily politicians turn it into an act of martyrhood, and the media swallows it as drama. People like Arun Pathak of Varanasi have made a career out of threatening to commit suicide as a form of protest. He has cut his veins, consumed Valium, jumped into the Ganges with a rock tied to him. He is now a politician protected by bodyguards.

The Telangana Joint Action Committee claims that around 300 youth have committed suicide for the separate state. That number is probably not true, but what is beyond doubt is that Telangana would be better served with live supporters than dead ones.

The Rahul Mahajan wife-beating drama playing out on television and in newspapers is especially embarrassing for his sister Poonam Mahajan, who’s been working assiduously to implement women’s empowerment programmes in Maharashtra. Rahul’s recent assault on wife Dimpy is not the first time he’s been accused of domestic violence. His first wife Shweta, too, displayed her bruises in public before divorcing him. Poonam, who has been vocal about domestic violence, has been silent when it comes to her brother. Her only comment was a rather cryptic statement that she is not in touch with the couple and that women should be treated with dignity.

Tamil Nadu is the blessed land of unauthorised religious structures on public land. According to a list submitted by all Indian states to the Supreme Court, this state had the maximum number. A bench headed by Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma had asked state chief secretaries to submit details of illegal religious structures in parks and on streets. Tamil Nadu had 77,453 structures. It was followed closely by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Sikkim, Mizoram and Nagaland, though, reported none.