New Delhi, Nov. 30 -- A dangerous thing the Indian news media does is attribute reasons for suicide. Any straightforward 'cause' cited for this form of death is at risk of being erroneous, apart from being dangerous, even if such a reason is sourced from a person's suicide note. People are not taken so seriously when they speak of themselves in their best times, yet a note they write in their darkest hour is used to explain their final act.

When there is no note, the media deduces a simple reason from what the family of the deceased say. At times, political motives amplify convenient reasons.

All this has surfaced once again with the suicides of booth-level officers of the Election Commission of India (ECI). A story has developed that a...