Congress' Shailandra Patel said he was stunned with the reply stating suicides were because of ghosts.
In Madhya Pradesh, "ghosts" have crept into an official government reply in the state assembly.
In response to a lawmaker's question on farmer suicides at Sehore district around 40 km from Bhopal, state home minister Bhupendra Singh said many of the deaths were because of ghosts. There were over 400 suicides there in two and a half years, he said in a written reply.
Shailandra Patel, the Congress lawmaker who had asked for the statistics, said he was stunned that the minister had attributed some of the deaths to "bhoot, pret, upari saaya (ghosts)."
"The reason for some of the deaths is bizarre. The home minister has replied that some died because of ghosts and black magic. When I counter-questioned him on whether the state government believes in superstition...he was silent in the house."
As screenshots of the reply were circulated by the Congress legislator, a defensive home minister told NDTV: "The state government has not said that people have died due to ghosts. When a person dies, the statements of family of the deceased are recorded and whatever they have stated, we have just repeated that in our reply. The state government doesn't believe in such superstition."