Karnataka: Farmers Launch Indefinite Protest Sit-in

Thousands of farmers and agricultural workers began an indefinite protest sit-in on Monday, February 10, at Freedom Park in Bangalore, in India’s southern state of Karnataka, to oppose the ongoing corporate looting of their resources and demand economic protections. 

The farmers and agricultural workers gathered in the capital from different parts of the state under the leadership of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha affiliated with the left wing All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and other groups affiliated to All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU). They carried red flags and shouted slogans against corporate exploitation. 

Farmers launch indefinite protest and demands for justice

The protesters have decided to sit-in at the protest site for an indefinite period until all their demands are met by the state government. 

Their demands include: 

• Land and housing rights for all landless families in the state
• Fair and remunerative prices for all agricultural products 
• The strengthening of Agricultural Producers Marketing Committee (APMC)
• An increase in the minimum number of workdays under the government’s employment guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, to at least 200 days a year 
• An end to government-led land acquisition for corporate projects

Several central and state leaders of AIKS, AIAWU, and Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) addressed the protest, including Vijoo Krishnan, General Secretary of the AIKS. Krishnan urged the liberal-centrist Indian National Congress (INC)-led state government to honor its election promises and stop its rightward shift. He accused the state government of courting corporations instead of working for the welfare of the people since coming to power in the last state elections. 

Krishnan told Peoples Dispatch, “the governments are ignoring the landless, poor, agricultural workers and farmers to implement policies in favor of the rich.” He pointed out that while “millions of people” in Karnataka state alone “are landless, homeless” the government is busy promoting the interests of big companies and denying people their rights over the land “they have been cultivating for generations.” 

Krishnan accused the Congress government in Karnataka of “rampant land acquisition to promote interests of corporate cronies and real estate mafia” warning that the current agitation “will go on until the demands are met.”    

The protest coincides with the state government’s hosting of a “global investor’s meet” in Bangalore. The event aims to invite more private investment in projects which may directly impact farmers and landless agricultural workers.  

Women protesters demand just compensation 

Hundreds of women across Karnataka who have lost their land to big mining companies such as Mittal steel, Reddy brothers, and NDMC are also part of the agitation demanding better compensation for their stolen lands.   

According to a social media post by Krishnan, these women have lost around 13,000 acres of land in Bellary district in the Karnataka state to the mining companies. During the prior state elections, they were promised by the Congress-led state government that their demands would be fulfilled. However, it has been almost two years since that promise without any result.   

The parties in power have failed to resolve the matter. Women protesters have accused the government of protecting the interests of the corporations instead of doing their job to protect the interests of the common people, Krishnan’s post says. 

The agrarian crisis and corporate takeover

Farmers and agricultural workers in India have been facing a growing crisis of living standards and falling actual income for a long time. The crisis in the country’s agriculture, which is still the livelihood of over 40% of its people, is not new, but due to the policy decisions of successive governments. Instead of prioritizing the welfare of millions, successive central and state governments have pursued neoliberal economic policies, for example allowing private corporations to directly purchase from farmers and eliminating existing state protections for farmers and public purchasing agencies. Such reforms mean that farmers who also have to grapple with the challenges of climate change and climate events to eke out their survival, are also vulnerable to corporate entities and individuals whose decision are based on their own profits.

Farmers in several Indian states such as Punjab and Haryana had intensified their agitation against India’s central government in the last several months. Since 2014, the central government has been led by the ultra-right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Narendra Modi as prime minister. Modi’s government has been trying to unleash a direct corporate takeover in agriculture at the cost of millions of small and marginal farmers.  

In an earlier interview with Peoples Dispatch, Krishnan explained that the unfolding of neoliberal policies in agriculture is done under the pressure of the global institutions such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) which cater to the interests of global capital.