Comment

Once in a while it is worthwhile going back in time just to look at the starting point of one’s career to see how far one has travelled. If BS Yeddyurappa were to do that and if he were to spend half an hour with his party colleagues from Shimoga district reminiscing events in that district back in the early 1980s, he would surely shed a tear or two over the plight of farmers in Davangere.

Some of them were handcuffed and transported after they were arrested. Their only crime: protesting the proposed acquisition of their land by the state. This is not the first time that such silly action has been initiated against farmers. But to be handcuffed for trying to protect one’s own property defies logic and would certainly amount to violation of human rights.

Politically it could be much more damaging and Mr Yeddyurappa knows that too well. After all, he once represented the interest of similarly placed farmers fighting a myopic bureaucracy in Shikaripur, his constituency, and in a larger context in Shimoga district which provided both the ideological underpinning and numerical support for the farmers’ movement in 1980. It was on the back of such a movement that Yeddyurappa won in 1983. More important, it was on the back of such a movement, among other things, that the Congress, led by R Gundu Rao, was defeated for the first time in the state.

The chief minister’s comrades in arms from those days from Shimoga could easily remind him of the perils of taking on the farmers’ lobby unnecessarily. In districts like Shimoga and Mandya, the Congress bit the dust because it created and sustained an impression that it was anti-farmer. The reasons for the state apparatus turning against the farmers then may have been completely different but the regime now is in the danger of emerging exactly in the same light as the regime then did; of being anti-farmer.

That probably is not the case with Yeddyurappa. But if you look at the string of events of state action against farmers in Chamarajanagar, Bellary, Davangere and Bangalore districts in the last few days, you would begin to wonder whether the chief minister’s focus has shifted away from his core constituency.
If that is the case, the BJP will have a huge problem on hand in the long run because, once an impression that it is anti-farmer and, therefore, generally anti-poor, gains currency, it will be very difficult to arrest the decline. Mr Yeddyurappa has seen all this over the years and that is why it is so surprising that very little is being done to win back the faith of this particular constituency.

Apart from all other issues that affect the farmers, market price of land close to cities and towns has created the perception of land value being higher, much higher in fact, than the price government offers in case of acquisition. That is true to a large extent. Farmers, whose lands were acquired at, say Rs3 lakh per acre, now find similar land valued at several multiples of that. The resistance of farmers to acquisition, whether in Bangalore, Bellary or Davangere is precisely on account of the perception that they get a raw deal in such transactions. Most of them would gladly quit farming if they can get a good price for the farm land, but not government determined prices.The state needs to adopt a fresh approach in offering a fair compensation to the only asset that farmers can monetise. If it fails to produce a fair mechanism, it will not only face the wrath of farmers as it is experiencing now, but also acquisition of large tracts for infrastructure projects, even in remote regions, will be impossible.