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On Wednesday, June 25, farmers protesting the land acquisition in Devanahalli in the outskirts of Bengaluru gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the state government to denotify the land and halt the acquisition proceedings. If the government fails to act, the farmers said they will launch intensified protests from Thursday. The farmers have been protesting for more than three years against the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board's (KIADB) plan to acquire 1,777 acres of fertile farmland spread across 13 villages in Devanahalli taluk for a proposed aerospace park.
Hundreds of people from several organisations from all over the state, particularly from the neighbouring districts joined the ‘Devanahalli Chalo’ protest on Wednesday, organised to mark 1,178 days since farmers began protesting the acquisition of land in Devanahalli taluk, Bengaluru Rural district. The protesters were joined by actor Prakash Raj, trade union activists, Dalit groups, and other social activists.
In a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the farmers said, “Either you must leave us alone to live our lives or you must permanently imprison us with our families and declare that companies are more important to you than us.”
Devanahalli Tahsildar Balakrishna accepted a memorandum from the farmers demanding the withdrawal of the land acquisition notices. Bengaluru Rural police detained several people from the protest after the protesters refused to leave the spot after 5 pm. They were released at around 1am on Thursday, June 26.
Three-and-a-half years of protests
At the start of the protest, one of the speakers led the gathering in a pledge, which everyone in the audience repeated. “We will not sell the land. No matter what, we will not let anyone destroy our land. This is our pledge, this is Devanahalli’s pledge,” they said.
The current phase of land acquisition in these villages started in January 2022 when 1,777 acres of land in the taluk were notified, affecting about 800 families. Since then, the farmers have protested outside the Devanahalli taluk office with the aim to protect their agricultural land, and have even faced police violence on occasion.
On June 24, Industries Minister MB Patil had said that the government would drop the acquisition of 499 acres of land in Channarayapatna hobli. President of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Badagalpura Nagendra criticised MB Patil’s statement and said that when it came to land acquisition, all political parties in the state were in agreement.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s image was plastered all over posters put up around the stage of the protest on Wednesday. The posters carried photos from various protests held over the past three years with the appeal ‘Siddaramaiah don’t abandon farmers’. The tone of the protest was tough, with several speakers criticising the CM and his Ahinda politics.
The protest venue had the blue flags of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, the red ones of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the green flags and shawls of the farmers’ groups.
Activists speak
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was a particular target of many speakers who criticised his advocacy Ahinda, an acronym of the Kannada terms for minorities, backward classes and Dalits.
Srinivas, one of the farmers who has been consistently protesting, said that they had done everything they could to draw the attention of the government and get the acquisition process cancelled.
“We met the Chief Minister three times in the past three years. Each time, he said he will sort it out in the next meeting. He has dashed our hopes. We did not expect this from the Chief Minister who talks in support of farmers and Dalits.”
Actor Prakash Raj, who has also previously participated in the protests, also singled out the CM.
“In three years, how many times should we ask for the land to be denotified? The government must remember that they did not win the elections. It was people who made them victorious,” Prakash Raj said.
Referring to Siddaramaiah and his politics, Prakash Raj continued, “You talk about Ahinda, you talk about farmers’ rights. You had given your word before the elections that the acquisition will be cancelled. Will you keep your word?”
Pointing out the date of the Devanahalli Chalo protest—June 25—Meenakshi Sundaram invoked the declaration of the Emergency by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“June 25. Let Siddaramaiah remember this date. Emergency was declared on this day in 1975. Indira Gandhi was voted out because she declared Emergency. Back then, Siddaramaiah fought against the Emergency. Now we’re giving you two choices. We will either go back home with the acquisition cancelled and our lands safe, or we will bring down the government,” Meenakshi Sundaram said.
State president of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkarvada) Mavalli Shankar said that many Dalits in the region had got land after a long struggle and that they would not give it up.
“There is no land left in the villages around Bengaluru. In the name of Greater Bengaluru, the state government will hand over land to companies. We want to tell Siddaramaiah that we will not give up the land,” Shankar said.
Writer SG Siddaramaiah said that many farmers had been granted land as a part of the land reforms and questioned why the government was now out to take it away. “Why doesn’t the government acquire barren land? We are not against progress,” he said.