A letter to farmers
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Let’s defy the neo-liberal politics of deceit!
Let’s build a strong peasant revolt against forced land acquisition!
The Karnataka Raitha Sangh, an affiliate of the All India Krantikari Kisan Sabha (AIKKS), has led very important land struggles in the districts of Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Koppal and Raichur in Karnataka. Similarly, the Sangh has also actively participated in the “Our Land, Our Right” struggle being waged by the farmers of Devanahalli. Firstly, the state 
Congress government demands that the implementation of liberal economic policies in the state be abandoned. Liberal economic policies (privatization, liberalization, globalization) have opened the state to international financial companies to plunder the natural resources, agricultural wealth and labor power of our country. In the name of development, the Siddaramaiah government has brought imperialist plundering companies into Karnataka’s fold by holding a Global investors Meet. It is dancing to the tune of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Tens of thousands of acres of land worth crores of rupees taken away from farmers through the KIDB have been sold to the international real estate business. 30,000 acres of land worth 9000 crores in the state are not included in the proposed projects.
Employment creation has also been destroyed. 70% of the land acquired is being circulated as fixed assets of corporate companies. Only the farmers who have lost their land are becoming bankrupt and are disappearing. Our farmers, who
have lost the agricultural life they have built for thousands of years, are left destitute. Even after all this, liberal policies are being enforced on the peasantry through force.
The neo-liberal policy adopted by the P.V. Narasimha Rao Congress government in 1991 has been continued like wildfire by the RSS Fascist government in power under the names of Make in India and others. We must not forget that the Janata Parivar parties, Dravidian parties, and Aam Aadmi Party are also neo-liberal parties. But the most shocking thing is that while claiming to be Marxist and socialist, the CPI(M) and the Left Front “communist parties” have become the favorite champions of this imperialist neo-liberal economy! In West Bengal then, and today in Kerala, the Left Front government led by the CPI(M) is forcibly implementing the right-wing imperialist neo-liberal economic policies. For the last 35 years, India’s agriculture, industry, and service sectors have been victims of this neo-liberal attack. The central BJP government’s supreme economic program is to implement this attack more sharply and extensively. Fascist rule is being imposed on the people to suppress the natural mass movements against it. Religious hatred, linguistic hatred, and regionalism are being spread among the workers, farmers, and small businessmen who have been victimized by the extortion of neo-liberal economic policies to prevent them from coming together and resisting. Democratic institutions are being transformed into fascist institutions.
The politics of building a new India through neo-liberal economic policies is a deceptive one. BJP, Congress, JDS, DMK, CPI(M), Aam Aadmi Party, all these parties fully support foreign investment in Indian agriculture and industry. That is why, when these parties are in power, instead of giving land to tiller , land is being given to those who invest. Reserved forests, highly sensitive forests, cattle ranches, river, valley, coastal land, hills and mountains, valleys of precious minerals, and the agricultural lands of farmers who give rice on credit are being given away by these neo-liberal governments to corporate capitalists. Even if they arrest, use force, shoot, or kill farmers, there is a need for political vitality among the people against this neo-liberal deceitful politics that sacrifices the country for the super extortion of their capitalists and imperialists. If the class politics of many parties of the same class is not exposed in front of the people, those who are fighting will not unite and become a class. We must not forget, no matter what the circumstances, that the biggest deficiency in the farmer movement so far is that an alternative politics has not been built against the deceitful politics of neo-liberal economic policy.
The demons who came to Devanahalli
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The first government to come forward to acquire the Kamadhenu Kalpavruksha (excellent agriculture, high dairy farming) land of 13 villages in Devanahalli taluka, Channarayapatna, Bangalore Rural District is the BJP government of S.R. Bommai. Then Siddaramaiah opposed this land acquisition. Because he was the leader of the opposition party. Now? This same Siddaramaiah’s Congress government has followed in the footsteps of the BJP government. The Devanahalli farmers, who have been fighting for the last Three years saying, “Even if they die, they will not let their cultivated land be touched,” have been forcibly arrested and brought to Bengaluru by the leaders who supported them. Freedom of protest has been banned in Devanahalli.Ministers M.B. Patil and K.H. Muniyappa are no longer people’s representatives here. They are pawns of the Global investor company. They are brokers in favor of foreign capital investment. Not a blade of grass here moves without Siddaramaiah’s notice. Not only that, why aren’t the BJP taking to the streets against the Congress government? In other words, there is no doubt that forcible land acquisition is the politics of both parties. If the first demon to come to Devanahalli was the BJP, then the second demon to come was the Congress! That’s the difference!!
To be fair, there is a lot of government wasteland in various districts of the state. Why is a high-tech defense and Aerospace park needed in Devanahalli itself? This is not the reason here. This forced land acquisition is happening for the global real estate investment of foreign corporate companies like Boeing, Magellan Aerospace, Wipro Enterprises and Safran, HAL companies. This is worse and more barbaric than the British rule. To defeat this forced land invasion, we must learn the lessons of the past struggles. Led by the Revolutionary Communist and other forces.The progressive illusion about the ruling class must be removed.
Singur-Nandigram
attacks and Revolts
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The last period of the ‘Left’ rule in the state of West Bengal was when Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of the CPI(M) CM In 2006-07, the Indian corporate company Tata Motors had asked the state government for one thousand acres of land for its new factory to manufacture Nano cars. There was enough government land in the state to give. But the Buddhadeb government suddenly set out to acquire land in the area that Tata had asked for. The Tata company had its eyes on the land of the farmers, small holders, and vegetable gardens of Singur, which falls under the jurisdiction of Hooghly Nagar district, just 34 km from Kolkata.
The Buddhadeva CPI(M) Left Front government issued a notification for the acquisition of 997 acres of land in Singur without allowing the farmers to raise any objections. This news was like a thunderbolt for the Singur farmers. The Singur farmers were outraged and expressed their opposition to the land being given enmasse. They started a protest. Without taking the Singur farmers into confidence, force such as tear gas, rubber bullets, and lathi charge was used on their protest. The repression increased as the protest grew. To suppress the people’s resistance, false cases were filed against the Singur farmers and they were thrown in jail. Even after that, the struggle did not stop and support for the Singur farmers’ protest continued to pour in day by day. There was also widespread condemnation of the CPI(M) government’s attack on the Singur farmers. The Singur farmers were fighting voluntarily with their historic left spirit. The names that no one had heard at that time were Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee. Suddenly Mamata took over the struggle arena by expressing full support for the Singur farmers’ struggle. She increased her influence beyond limits in the dawn. Singur erupted and defeated the Left Front government’s forced land acquisition. The leadership of the revolutionary party and the absence of alternative leadership brought another neo-liberal political party, the Trinamool Congress, to the center of the West Bengal political landscape.
The CPI(M) government did not correct its mistake from Singur. Because it was no longer revolutionary. Chief Minister Buddhadeb himself said ‘globalization is inevitable’! The CPI(M) government applauded the pro-imperialist economic policies of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who said, “Globalization should be given a human face.” Because of all this, it embarked on another forced land acquisition In 2007-08. the CPI(M) “Left Front Government” issued a notification to hand over 10,000 acres of small holding land, out of the number one agricultural land of the villages of Nandi Gram area, 140 km from Kolkata, to the Indonesian-based SALIM Groups. The forcible acquisition of farmers’ land was started to build a chemical hub. The Congress government at the center also fully agreed to this. This news hit every family in every village around Nandi Gram like a thunderbolt. On the other hand, revolutionary communists belonging to several factions of the CPI(ML), which had a legacy of revolutionary land reforms in Bengal, entered the arena of farmer awareness in Nandi Gram. The Bhoomi Vichsheda Sangsad Samiti (BVPS) came into existence. Progressive, pro-farmer, intellectuals, and students joined the struggle to protect the land of the farmers of Nandi Gram. Thousands of people gathered to hold sit-ins, appeals and peaceful protests. But even though the “CPI(M) Left Front government” was defeated in Singur, it started a politics of revenge in Nandigram. A huge police force and more than 300 CPI(M) workers attacked the farmers with weapons. They set fire to the houses of farmers in dozens of villages. However, the farmers stood firm and faced the police and party’s gunfire. They revolted with swords, axes and sickles to protect themselves from the goons. To suppress this struggle of the farmers, 4000 armed forces including paramilitary, rapid action force 
and war commandos were deployed and attacked the struggling farmers. In this brutal attack, 14 farmers were killed by gunfire. More than 100 civilians were killed. More than countless womens were raped!!
There was a flood of national and international condemnation against this brutal attack, murder and rape by this neo-liberal and fake Left Front government. Under the leadership of the real communists of the CPI(ML) and their supporters, a massive struggle continued against this oppression of the regime. Finally, the farmers of Nandigram, fighting with sacrifice and without compromise, won against the multinational company and the anti-farmer government. The neo-liberal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was defeated. This struggle changed the political landscape of West Bengal. Didi filled the void left by the revolutionary communists not coming forward with unity and a political alternative. The Left Front became a nameless entity. The Trinamool Congress was consolidated in power. Although it won economically, it lost politically. There is a lot to learn from this. The Nandigram people Uprising proved that the CPI(M) and the Left Front parties were not communist parties.
Bhangar farmer movement that exposed Mamata’s colors
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Bhangar is the most important multi-crop agricultural area in the 24 Parganas district adjacent to Kolkata city. This land is home to 92% Muslim farmers. The Mamata Banerjee government, in collaboration with the Central Government, moved to acquire the agricultural land of Khamkriti, Machhibhanga, Tona and Padmapukar villages for the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL). As soon as the news of the forced land acquisition works came to light in 2016-17, the farmers of these villages were distraught. When TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, who stood up for the farmers in Singur and Nandigram, saw the farmers being set on fire in Bangar, the farmers here came together like a flood. The Revolutionary Communist Party CPI (ML) Red Star devoted all its strength to energize them politically. Another revolutionary organization called MLRO joined this work. The Jeevan Zamin Bachao Andolan Samiti came into existence. In January 2017, the power grid center was locked. When the farmers declared that “livelihood land cannot be given if life is lost”, the Mamata government sent its police and private goons to attack Bangar villages. However, more than 10 thousand farmers turned back with local weapons to confront the police and goons who came to snatch land through force and terror. They took over the roads to prevent the police goons from entering the villages. Two comrades named Mafizullah and Allamagir lost their lives in the police firing. The struggle that did not stop even then, groups set fire to the vehicles of the rowdies and police. The had formed a group and attacked the house of the Trinamool Congress leaders in favor of land acquisition surrounded the people with swords and sticks. Comrade Shankar, Comrade Alik, Comrade Sharmishta (martyr) Pradeep Singh, etc., who were leading the movement, were arrested and sent to jail under UAPA and more than 40 police cases. As the repression increased, the conflict continued to grow in size and scope. Finally, succumbing to the intensity of the struggle, Mamata Banerjee reached an agreement with the Leaders in 2017 and abandoned the proposed land acquisition. Overall, the Bhangar farmer movement highlighted the true ruling class and exploiting class political nature of Mamata Banerjee of the TMC.
Our experiences of Halligudi-Nandagudi in Karnataka
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The land of Halligudi and surrounding villages in Mundaragi taluk of Gadag district is famous for cotton, wheat and white corn crops. It is just 13 km away from rare forests and medicinal environments like Kappatagudda. The Singatalur Lift Irrigation Project has been prepared for this land. This is the land with the number one grade fertility among cultivated agricultural land. In 2011, the state BJP government moved to forcibly acquire such agricultural land to set up a steel plant of the North Korean company POSCO. Although the land required for the steel plant was 1,000 acres, there was a movement to block the then BJP Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, who was planning to seize 6,000 acres of farmers’ land and hand it over to the POSCO compny.
The movement to save the Halligudi land was widespread under the leadership of the President of the Mundaragi Taluka Development Struggle Forum, Y. N. Gowdar, most of the farmers of the surrounding villages, and the monks of the Gadag Sri Tonta Mutt. The then BJP government lured some of the struggling farmer leaders into supporting POSCO by offering them a desire that they did not have. “Development is impossible if the company does not come,” they said. Farmers were pitted against farmers. Of course, no right-wing neo-liberal parties supported this struggle in the true sense. The real Revolutionary left-wing farmers’ associations, pro-people forces and the farmers themselves stood up and challenged the POSCO company and its agents in the Halligudi movement. The Karnataka Raita Sangha (AIKKS) played its own role in this historic struggle.
Similarly, just a few days before the Halligudi land movement, in 2007-08, the H.D. Kumaraswamy JD(S) government declared Kinnal and Basapura villages east of Koppal town as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Nandagudi and surrounding villages in rural Bangalore as another Special Economic Zone, and announced that the entire rural area would be given to foreign companies. This was another type of forced land acquisition. On the one hand, an anti-SEZ protest committee was formed in Koppal and a march was taken out from Koppal to Nelogi. In Nelogi, farmers shouted, “What right do you have to barge into the open meeting of Chief Minister Kumaraswamy’s village stay program and snatch our land?”. On the other hand, the phenomenon was publicized at the state level by organizing the first anti-SEZ farmers’ conference in Bangalore at Varadachar Kala Kshetra in by the CPI(ML) and the Karnataka Raitha Sangha. A separate protest was going on in Nandagudi, Bengaluru. The Bangalore conference widely publicized the danger of the state government encroaching on farmers’ agricultural land in the name of SEZ. The protest also intensified in Nandagudi. Every popular organization started speaking against SEZ. Finally, the government abandoned the SEZ land acquisition of Koppal and Nandagudi. This is our own experience of our land.
Land acquisition that challenged the existence of Koppal
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If we look at it like this, it is no mistake that Koppal is the district in North Karnataka where the most farmers’ land has been forcibly acquired. Many companies have already taken control of the farmers’ land and government lake and pond land of most of the villages around Koppal town through the state government’s KIADB. An estimated 20,000 acres of agricultural land is in the hands of corporate companies and local brokers in the name of industrial investment. This has not created even a minimal amount of employment. Farmers have not received adequate and fair compensation. The environment of Koppal has been damaged to the maximum extent. In the current situation, the state Congress government has once again taken over the acquisition of a large amount of farmers’ land for MSPL (Boldota Steel and Power Limited). A large-scale public opposition has been expressed by calling a Koppal bandh on February 25, 2025, led by the Koppal Environmental Protection Committee, against this forced land acquisition. The elders, writers, and organizations who have shaped Koppal’s history are fighting without compromise. The Congress MLA of Koppal have stepped on both sides. However, it seems that this movement is not getting the public support it needs from outside. This is a struggle for the survival of Koppal. A bigger land grab than Devanahalli has taken place here. The possibilities of building the biggest struggle in Karnataka from Koppal are strong. Devanahalli in the south and Koppal in the north need to be united.
Immediate tasks before us
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The neo-liberal deceitful politics of forcible land acquisition and corporate industrial agriculture system imposed on the people is the main opponent of our farmers, workers and Kannadigas. The neo-liberal political parties that implement these deceitful political and economic policies must be removed from the arena of struggle. Otherwise, we will have to be deceived like Tipu Sultan and Kittur Chennamma who framed Mirsadhak Mallappa Shetty. That is, a state-level alliance of farmers, Dalits and workers organizations that oppose liberalization and privatization in practice and in theory should be formed. Under this, the country’s pro-people intellectuals, students and youth should be brought to the arena of struggle in larger numbers for study committees, advisory committees, publicity committees and legal committees. The farmers’ struggle, which is limited to economic consequences, should put forward an alternative political vision in the political arena of Karnataka. Similarly, based on the lessons learned from the land revolts so far and the material conditions of various regions of Karnataka, a large-scale collective struggle of the farmers and the working class should be launched. The program of “The tiller is the owner of the land” should be implemented.
R.Manasayya
Polit Bureau Member
CPI(ML)Red Star
5-7-2025
