ABSTRACT
Gopal Krishna Kashyap was a union leader of food vendors in Patiala, a town in the state of Punjab. On 24 January 2006, Gopal Krishna walked to the middle of the busy market place carrying a can of kerosene. He started addressing the crowd around him. He told them that his people had been harassed for over two years. They were removed from the place they operated because that space was to be converted to a garden. The authorities had promised him then that the vendors would be settled in an alternative site, but over two years had passed and nothing had happened. His members were starving as they had no work for over two years. The only way, he told his audience, was to sacrifice his life and perhaps then the authorities would take heed. Gopal Krishna then doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze before the stunned crowd. He was dead before the ambulance could reach the crowded spot (Hindustan Times 2006: 1).
