Last week saw the 31st edition of the Martyr’s Day at Navalgund in Dharwad district and Nargund in Gadag district. It was 31 years ago the police had opened fire to quell violent agitating farmers. Two farmers and three policemen were killed in the violent incidents.
The incident sparked off violent protests by farmers all over the state and also resulted in the fall of the Gundu Rao government and emergence of the first ever non-Congress government in Karnataka — the Janata Party government headed by Ramakrishna Hegde.
It may be recalled that the farmers of Naragund and Navalgund taluks had launched an agitation against the government forcibly collecting the betterment levy from farmers in the Malaprabha Command Area which included Nargund and Navalgund taluks. Their argument was the benefits of the Malaprabha project had not reached a majority of farmers due to faulty planning and collection of levy from the non-beneficiaries was unjustified.
Veerappa Kadlikoppa of Chikkanaragund village in Naragund taluk of Gadag district (Then in Dharwad district) and Basappa Lakkundi of Alagawadi village in Navalgund taluk of Dharwad district were killed in police firing. The day is observed as farmer martyr’s day every year and it has become customary on the part of political parties to pay homage to the deceased farmers.
The Martyrs’ day has also provided an opportunity to opposition parties to attack the ruling party for “neglecting farmers”, while for the ruling party it has been an occasion to reiterate its commitment to the cause of farmers.
Much water has flowed down the Malaprabha since 1980. The farmers who were urging for implementation of the Kalasa Banduri Nalla project seem to have resigned themselves to their fate as the project hangs in balance thanks to objections by the Goa government. The focus this time is on the government’s move to acquire agricultural land for setting up industries.
With stiff opposition to land acquisition will the government mission of developing North Karnataka as an industrial hub materialise? This is a million dollar question.
