The immolation of Saravana Suresh citing his being upset over the Central Government not setting up the Cauvery Management Board comes as a rude shock. This incident followed the self-immolation of another MDMK worker Ravi on April 1, in full public view amid the Neutrino protests. These incidents require some introspection as to the reasons for the rise in such senseless suicides.
While self-harm/self-immolation became popular in the late 60's owing to the anti-Hindi agitation, there was definitely a lull till a few years ago. The protests against the Mandal Commission did create waves of attention across the country. The suicide of Muthukumar on 29th January 2009, in protest against the killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka gained much attention. Muthukumar (26), who was a young journalist, doused himself with kerosene, distributed pamphlets to save the Tamils in Sri Lanka just before immolating himself. For the same issue, Sengodi (20) immolated herself.
Given the emotional situation in Tamil Nadu over the severity of treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Muthukumar's funeral was attended by thousands of people. Soon he gained the status of a martyr for the cause of the Tamils. The two were accorded a cult status by naming village after them. These two incidents renewed the trends in the glorification of suicides in the state.
Last year, medical aspirant Anita (19) committed suicide as she was fighting an uphill battle against the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET). There is a statue being erected in her image. Though their causes were noteworthy, giving up one's life in trying to uphold a cause through immolation or other means is unacceptable.
These events are given big play in the media and trigger the public imagination, which in turn could even inspire some persons to recklessly attempt suicide for some cause. Even accepting that the volatile issues at stake need urgent remedial attention, there must also be realisation that this menace of glorification of suicide must be stopped. This is no better than the long outlawed practice of Sati.
The news of dramatic suicides after hogging the lime light for a few days ebbs away; only to be remembered for its anniversary. The saddest part is that the families of those who commit these senseless suicides are seldom taken care of. They end up more frustrated and traumatised because of the media attention they got when the issue was actively discussed. A few months down the line not many even remember it making it extra difficulty to face life living in penury.
There is now more than ever an urgent need for the political parties and their enlightened leaders to drive home the message hard and clear down the line through their cadres and the rest of the society that suicide is a huge tragedy imposed upon the concerned family and even on the society as it denies the community the benefit of the human resources of the young man or woman who had chosen to waste life in a moment of unguided recklessness that later, unfortunately gets hailed as supreme sacri-fice.
These leaders must condemn such acts of self inflicted harm. Those who take their lives especially for a cause are not drawing long term attention that results in intervention anymore.
Given this day and time with the technology and creative/powerful methods of protest, there will be not much results happening through suicides. Hence it is important to realise that there is no pride in giving up one's life or inflicting harm to oneself in the name of a cause.
(The Writer is Head of the Department of Social Work, Loyola College)
