Gokul G.K.

Arkatapa Basu

large_01-IMG_5837-GK__AB.jpg

medium_01-IMG_5837-GK__AB.jpg

small_01-IMG_5837-GK__AB.jpg

thumbnail_01-IMG_5837-GK__AB.jpg

01-IMG_5837-GK__AB.jpg

“This government does not care about farmers. It is on the side of the big companies. The APMC is also being given to them. Why are they helping them and not farmers?” asked Shanta Kamble, an agricultural labourer from Belagavi taluk of Belagavi district in north Karnataka. Sitting on a road divider near Bengaluru City railway station, in the Majestic locality in the central part of the city, she was listening to the cries of ‘Kendra sarkara dhikkara’ (We condemn the central government) ringing out around her at noon. Shanta, 50, had reached Bengaluru by bus on the morning of January 26 to take part in the farmers’ Republic Day protest rally. That morning, farmers and farm workers from all over Karnataka were arriving in Majestic by trains and buses to go to Freedom Park – two kilometres away – and attend a meeting to support the tractor parade of farmers protesting in Delhi against the three new farm laws. Back home, Shanta earns Rs. 280 for a day’s work, planting crops like potato, pulses and groundnut, and weeding farmland. She takes up MGNREGA jobs when there is no farm work. Her sons, who are 28 and 25 years old, do construction work available under MGNREGA. “We didn’t have proper food or water during the [Covid-19] lockdown,” she said. The government is never concerned about us.” A group of farmers in the parking area of the railway station were shouting, “We want APMC. The new laws must go.”

Last year, the government-run APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee), had helped 50-year-old Krishna Murthy. Due to erratic rains, the farmer from Banapura village in Ballari taluk, Ballari district, had lost a portion of his crops — cotton, maize, ragi, coriander and tur. He took what was left on his 50-acre farmland and sold it at the APMC. “A lot of money goes into farming,” said Murthy. “We spend almost a lakh [of rupees] per acre and earn back only half of what we spend.”  The three farm laws that have united farmers all over India are <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-farmers-produce-trade-and-commerce-promotion-and-facilitation-act-2020/">The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020</a>; <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-farmers-empowerment-and-protection-agreement-on-price-assurance-and-farm-services-act-2020/">The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020</a>; and <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-essential-commodities-amendment-act-2020/">The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020</a>. They were first passed as ordinances on June 5, 2020, then introduced as farm bills in Parliament on September 14 and hastened into Acts by the present government on the 20th of that month. The farmers see these laws as devastating to their livelihoods because they will expand the space for large corporates to have even greater power over farmers and farming. The laws also undermine the main forms of support to the cultivator, including the minimum support price (MSP), the agricultural produce marketing committees (APMC), state procurement and more. They have also been criticised as affecting every Indian as they <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/and-you-thought-its-only-about-farmers/">disable the right to legal recourse</a> of all citizens, undermining Article 32 of the Indian Constitution. ‘Oppodilla! Oppodila!’ (We won’t accept it) chorused the farmers in Bengaluru. “We demand the immediate repeal of the three draconian farm laws,” said P. Gopal, state secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS). “Nearly 25 to 30 organisations in the state are participating in these protests. More than 50,000 farmers and workers are coming from all over Karnataka. The central government’s claim that only Punjab and Haryana farmers are protesting is completely wrong,” he added.

Sweta Daga

“The government is against the farmers. Even here, in Karnataka, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa is clearly with the corporates. He amended the Land Reforms Act [in 2020] in favour of big companies and unilaterally introduced the cow slaughter bill,” said Gopal. Standing with a group of women outside the railway station was A. Mamata, a 36-year-old farmer from Shiggaon taluk in Haveri district. She grows cotton, ragi and groundnuts on her nine-acre farmland. “We don’t want corporate mandis. The government should instead make APMCs stronger and eliminate middlemen. They should introduce efficient ways of purchasing crops directly from the farmers,” she said.  Around her, the crowd chanted, “The new laws are for Adani, Ambani.” In a corner of the railway station’s parking area, the travelling protestors were being offered hot food in paper plates. Members of the Karnataka Mangalamukhi Foundation (KMF), a statewide organisation of transgender persons, had prepared steaming rice pulao. “It is our duty. We have been brought up on the food cultivated by farmers. We are eating the rice grown by them,” said Arundhati G. Hegde, general secretary of KMF. The KMF owns five acres of land in Tarikere taluk, Chikkamagaluru district, where the organisation cultivates paddy, ragi and groundnuts. “We all come from farmer families. So we know how important this protest is. We are here doing our part in this struggle,” said Arundhati.

But by 1 p.m. on January 26, the police barricaded the Majestic area and prevented the protestors from proceeding to Freedom Park for the meeting. “The state government is against these democratic protests. It is using the police to curb dissent,” said KRRS leader Gopal, adding that even students and workers from all over the state had come to the city to express their solidarity. The extreme measures angered Ganga Dhanwarkar, a farmer from Ballari. “We aren’t fools to have left our homes, families and farms and come here to protest without any reason. More than 150 farmers have died in the protests in Delhi. They have been there in the biting cold, living on the streets with their children in tents.” The reason to protest, she said, was because “These laws are not for the people, the farmers or workers. They are only for the companies.” Cover photo: Almaas Masood

In Bengaluru: ‘We don't want corporate mandis’

பெங்களூருவில், ‘எங்களுக்கு கார்ப்பரேட் மண்டிகள் வேண்டாம்’

బెంగళూరులో: ‘మాకు కార్పొరేట్ మండీలు వద్దు’

বেঙ্গালুরুর কৃষক সমাবেশ: ‘আমরা কর্পোরেট মান্ডি চাইনা’

બેંગલુરુમાં: ‘નથી જોઈતી અમારે કોર્પોરેટ મંડીઓ’.

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ: 'ನಮಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಪೊರೇಟ್ ಮಂಡಿಗಳು ಬೇಡ'

ബെംഗളുരു പ്രതിഷേധം: ‘ഞങ്ങള്‍ക്കു കോര്‍പ്പറേറ്റ് മണ്ഡികള്‍ വേണ്ട’

ਬੰਗਲੁਰੂ ਵਿੱਚ: 'ਸਾਨੂੰ ਕਾਰਪੋਰੇਟ ਮੰਡੀਆਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਚਾਹੀਦੀਆਂ'

ବେଙ୍ଗାଲୁରୁ: ଆମକୁ କର୍ପୋରେଟ୍‌ ମଣ୍ଡି ଦରକାର ନାହିଁ

बेंगलुरु में: ‘हमें कॉर्पोरेट मंडियां नहीं चाहिएं’

بنگلورو میں: ’ہمیں کارپوریٹ منڈیاں نہیں چاہئیں‘

बंगळुरूः ‘आम्हाला कॉर्पोरेट बाजार समित्या नकोत’

 Bengaluru

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

In Bengaluru: ‘We don't want corporate mandis’

Farmers from north Karnataka arrived by trains and buses in Bengaluru on Republic Day, to support the Delhi tractor parade and reiterate their resistance to corporate-centred farm policies

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit