Nangal Jhamarwara (Dausa), April 23: Gajendra Singh Rajput, 43, disliked the grind of farming but loved to take up other people's causes and launch into "theatrical" protests, his neighbours and relatives said today.

"If someone's water supply snapped or garbage piled somewhere, he would stage dharnas and argue with local government officials, indulging in high-decibel drama to catch the authorities' attention," said a relative, Bhagirath Singh, at neighbouring Datiya village.

Which is why villagers in Nangal Jhamarwara, 120km from Jaipur, aren't surprised at Gajendra's spectacular gesture of climbing a tree and putting a noose round his neck at a political rally in Delhi yesterday - which, by intent or accident, killed the father of three.

In his village, his "melodramatic social activism" would often earn him a scolding from father Banne Singh or uncle and village sarpanch Gopal Singh, said Ravikant, a friend of Gajendra's youngest brother Devendra who is with the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary.

The family owns two houses and seemed the most affluent in a village of 4,000 marked by narrow lanes. The farmhouse has two cowsheds with at least six buffaloes. Banne and Gopal own 4.37 hectares of farmland each.

"Gopal Singh, especially, rebuked him for engaging in unnecessary arguments. But he was popular because he went out of his way to fight for others."

Banne, well over 70, disapproved of Gajendra's "wayward" ways. "He's a strict man. He once hit Devendra because he was chewing gutkha," Ravikant said.

A letter Gajendra is said to have lobbed to the rally crowd lamented that his father had thrown him out and his crop was damaged. But the father denied turning his son out and said the handwriting on the letter didn't match Gajendra's.

"What is wrong if a father scolds his son? Elders have a right to be tough when their children turn wayward," Banne said.

He looked a broken man, angry that no one came forward to save his son.

Gajendra, the eldest of three sons, was alone left to work his father's 4.37-hectare farmland as Devendra was in the police and the other brother in Jaipur, preparing for a competitive exam.

But he appears to have been a restless soul and would disappear for days on end, villagers said. "Gajendra hardly ever stayed in the village," said patwari (revenue official) Dinesh Saini.

Big claims

So, where would he go? The villagers said Gajendra had a remarkable "gift" - he could tie a safa each on 20 heads in five minutes flat and was therefore sought after at political events and weddings.

The safa is a kind of Rajasthani turban. The traditional welcome, especially at political events, is to tie a safa round a dignitary's head.

Sometimes, tying safas on wedding guests earned Gajendra between Rs 11,000 and Rs 21,000 at one go if the clients were rich, Ravikant said.

"He enjoyed safa-tying. He brought the material from Jaipur and could tie the safa in many different patterns. He loved to wear them too and acted in Rajasthani films," he said.

Ravikant couldn't name the films. Nor could he remember the year or the constituency while claiming Gajendra had once contested the Assembly polls unsuccessfully on a Samajwadi Party ticket

"This time he was called to Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party's Manish Sisodia and thought maybe that is the party for him," Ravikant said.

Apparently, all political parties hired him.

According to village lore, Gajendra had been engaged to do the honours for then US President Bill Clinton when he visited Rajasthan during his 2000 India trip, and for Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister.

Some villagers said Gajendra had a habit of bragging and dropping names.

"He often told me he owned 75 bighas in an area of Barmer (400km away) that is irrigated by the Indira Gandhi Canal," said Saini, the patwari.

Village wonders

As Gajendra's "suicide" charged up national politics, uncle and sarpanch Gopal Singh, like Ravikant and other villagers, insisted the hanging wasn't an accident but a deliberate act. This left them speculating why.

"Maybe he was provoked by the (political) speeches to take such a drastic step. He was anyway heartbroken because of the crop loss, which has been around 60 per cent. Perhaps the atmosphere, the speeches, all got to him," Gopal said.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh today told Parliament that the crowd's applause and sloganeering -which he said had continued against police appeals - had contributed to the charged atmosphere and nudged Gajendra towards "suicide".

Told that the assessment report put the crop loss in their tehsil, Baswa, at less than 24 per cent and they were not entitled to relief (the cut-off being 33 per cent), Gopal said: "The assessment report was done without our help; even I was not consulted."

Gopal is a two-time sarpanch; his wife Krishna Kanwar too has been a sarpanch.

As the women wept, politicians paid condolences and the media buzzed, Gajendra's youngest son Raghavendra, 7, pranced around. Older brother Devendra (who shares his name with his uncle), a Class VII student, sat quietly. He missed his exam today.

"Father sometimes took me to Jaipur," he said. "He worked for a few days somewhere at the City Palace - I think he tied safas there. He never ever told me to study."

Gajendra's daughter Megha, who has just taken her board exams, was too dazed to talk.

The family, which is from the Rajput community, seemed not to have any political leanings but some villagers said they might be sympathetic to the Congress.

Congress leaders, including former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and state Congress chief Sachin Pilot, visited the house. BJP social empowerment minister Arun Chaturvedi too came.