Over three years after they began protesting the acquisition of their land in 13 villages, the farmers of Karnataka’s Devanahalli taluk have won a major victory. The state government has announced that it will drop the acquisition of 1,777 acres of land.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Tuesday, July 15, during a press conference held after a meeting with farmers in Bengaluru, that the government would drop the acquisition of land in Devanahalli. He said that the government had taken the decision after hearing the views of farmers’ groups, activists, and MLAs such as KH Muniyappa who also spoke in favour of dropping the land acquisition.
“This is a unique struggle. It would not be wrong to call it a historic struggle. The government discussed the pros and cons and came to a decision,” he said.
He said that farmers and activists had refused to part with the land as it was fertile and their lives depended on it.
“We are dropping the acquisition of the 1,777 acres of land for which final notification has been done. However, if there are farmers who come forward, we will acquire it with their consent and no one can stop that. We want industries to develop and had acquired land for that. We will give such farmers proper compensation,” the CM said.
A relentless fight
The government had issued the final notifications for 1,777 acres in 13 villages in Bengaluru Rural taluk under the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development (KIAD) Act. This includes Palya, Haraluru, Polanahalli, Nalluru, Mallepura, Nallappanahalli, Cheemachanahalli, Mattabarlu, Muddenahalli, Channarayapattana, S Tellahalli, Hyadal, and Gokare Bacchenahalli villages.
The majority of the farmers were opposed to the acquisition of the land and launched a movement against it. Small groups of farmers have sat in protest outside the Devanahalli taluk office for months.
When several meetings with the government held over months yielded no results, the Samyukta Horata Samiti, the committee comprising members of various organisations which participated in the protests, gave a call for a ‘Devanahalli chalo’ on June 25, in which hundreds of farmers from across the state participated. When the police detained the farmers later that evening, the Samiti moved the protest to Bengaluru’s Freedom Park and were even joined by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which had led the protests against the Union government’s three farm bills that were ultimately withdrawn.
Read: Samyukta Kisan Morcha supports Devanahalli farmers’ protest in Bengaluru
The state government had recently said that it would need to look into the law to ascertain whether or not it could legally drop the acquisition.
The All India Lawyers Association for Justice (AILAJ) had on Monday, July 14, issued a statement saying that it was perfectly legal for the state government to withdraw the acquisition under Sections 28(2) and (4) the KIAD Act. The power to do so came from the Karnataka General Clauses Act and can be exercised before the government takes possession of the land. It can also exclude an area from an industrial area under Section 4 of the KIAD Act.
“It is therefore clear that there is no legal impediment whatsoever,” a statement from AILAJ had said. It also cited a Comptroller and Auditor General report, which said that the state government had denotified 563 acres and 16 guntas of land between November 2005 and April 2011.
Blue, green, and red
Holding a press conference shortly after the Chief Minister’s statement, members of the Samyukta Horata Samiti celebrated the victory, with several people emphasising that their victory was possible due support from a cross-section of organisations.
State president of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) S Varalakshmi held up three shawls—blue, green, and red, representing the Dalit, farmer, and communist colours.
“We can see what is possible when blue, green, and red unite,” she said to loud cheers and whistles from the audience, which comprised several farmers and activists. She said that unity between different progressive ideological groups could stand up to power structures. “This is not a victory of the Samyukta Horata Samiti, but the victory of farmers.”
She said that even though the farmers of Channarayapatna hobli in Devanahalli taluk, Bengaluru Rural had won a victory, farmers in Ballari’s Kudathini village had kept up their struggle for fair compensation for acquired land for 900 days. She pledged support to other movements, including working class movements. “What this movement has shown is that without a fight there will be no achievement.”
Senior journalist and writer Indudhara Honnapura said that dropping the acquisition was not an easy decision for the government and had it been someone other than Siddararamaiah, perhaps the government would not have dropped it. “He took a big political risk.”
However, he had a word of caution. “Many of us think that joining politics will bring change. But we are most effective when we take to the streets in protest,” he said.
Indudhara also said that many Dalits had been cheated of their land because they did not have the right documents. He said that that struggle still continued.
Activist Noor Shridhar thanked the young people who worked to support the movement. “Many people complain about young people, saying they no longer participate in movements. But had it not been for them, this movement would not have reached every part of Karnataka through social media.”
He said that the Samiti’s mode of working should become a model for the state. “This movement had no leaders. No one could tell the difference between workers and leaders. The Samiti can become a model for all land struggles in the state.”
Basavaraj from the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha said that while the current battle was won, many others remained. He said that several workers’ issues, the rights of landless labourers, and even the cow slaughter act of 2021 remained.
Several speakers thanked various individuals and activist groups by name for their support. Some recalled that many farmers such as Pramod had paid a high price. Pramod was injured in the eye in August 2022 when the police launched an unprovoked attack one night when a small group of farmers was sitting in protest outside the Devanahalli taluk office. The Devanahalli police station is right across the street.
The government’s decision to denotify the land in Devanahalli recalls the BS Yediyurappa government’s decision to drop the acquisition of 1,998 acres of land in Dakshina Kannada district for the Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) in 2012. However, that decision was possibly influenced by the threat of the Pejavar seer Vishveshwa Theertha Swami to launch an indefinite hunger strike.