The Village which Defied Democracy

When the whole world stands up to salute the Democrat processes of India, this little village on the outskirts of the silicon city of Bangalore defied this very same process and also wounded it with a nail right through the heart of Democracy.
Ramagondanahalli 16 kilometers away from the center of the garden city of Bangalore and 10 kilometers away from the electronic city (Silicon City) stayed away from exercising their franchise except for one black sheep in the whole of the village.
Though many newspapers in the city of Bangalore and the TV crews missed the non voting defiance by the villagers against their farm land grab by the Bangalore Development Authority, the DNA Bangalore edition had a small single column in their 24th April, 2009. Since the next day was Saturday and I had got myself into a relax mode, did nor bother nor take any pain to follow it up. But on Sunday, I was hell bend on going to the village to speak to the people who had defied Democracy.
When I reached Ramagondanahalli along with Preetha S Kumar (one of the few present day journalists who likes to go on the field), while most others would rather than sit in the office and collect them on the phone or worse still were some of them make up quotes with fabricated names, may god bless them.
The serene surrounding of the village was a pleasure to see and then talking to the residents who defied to vote and to add insult to injury they also told us that how they shooed away the visiting candidates of the Bangalore North constituency.
So talking to them became very easy as they obliged us and the village elders took us around and allowed us to cross question anyone at will in their village as to why they did not go to vote.
Most of the villager’s young and old whom we spoke to had one answer with them and that was the Bangalore Development Authority was acquiring their farming land in the name of development and compensating them with 40 percent of the authentic value of their land. This they say with a chorus ‘was robbing them of their livelihood and also undermining them as illiterates.’ So we decided to teach the whole Indian political system a lesson, which if this system is rightfully put to use will be – By the people, for the people and of the people – while this no longer exists. The motto now by the present political system is – By the people, for my family and of my family - one need not take a guess at what I am trying to convey.
There was revolution in Ramagondanahalli. The villagers want their land back from the BDA. As DNA reported, the protest came to a head in Thursday’s poll. The entire village, barring one resident, just refused to cast their ballots. Below are some of the reactions from the angry village on Sunday, three days after the polls, and found its residents fuming and remorseless.
Below are the pictures taken by me along with the angry quotes of the villagers against the BDA acquiring their homes as well as their farming land for the every land hungry citizens of the silicon city.

Dreams to be razed: Some of the portions of the Ramagondanahalli village which houses 1300 odd residents with some of them who have constructed their dream homes will be razed to the ground by the ever growing city of Bangalore. These farming lands along with their homes will be shortly converted into Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) plots, for the ever demanding land hungry citizens of the silicon valley.

Elders Speak: Lakshmamma, 90, right, with her daughter-in-law Ratnamma, 30. She says she would definitely have voted, had the BDA reversed its decision (left), as Veerappa, 85, with wife Sakamma, 70, and daughter, 32, are likely to lose their livelihood if the BDA acquires their half-acre farmland. (right)

Farmers Say: Munai Gowda, 26, works on his only farm which BDA is acquiring (left) as V Narayanappa, 53, has five acres of arable land. He is not happy with BDA’s suggestion that he can retain 40 per cent of his land. (right)

Tough Talk: N Srinivasaiyya, 53, has a large family, with 35 dependants. He is an arecanut farmer and the loss of land will spell doom for his family, (left) Sokkamma, 84, is furious at BDA’s attempt to acquire her land. “Can you tell us what will we eat? Mud perhaps?” she yells. (right)

Youth Anger:Harshita, 18, seen above with her family, decided to forgo the opportunity to vote for the first time, in solidarity with the rest of the village (left), Sreenivas, 44, Anusuyamma, 32, and Mavitha S, 25, show their voters’ identification cards, which, of course, they didn’t use.(right)

Woman Power: Vyankantamma, 45, with her 25, year old daughter Gangamma have 10 quintals of land with a few cows and a small house which they will lose to the BDA land grab (left), as Shanthamma, 30, owns half an acre of land. She stares at a bleak future as the BDA remains steadfast in its decision to acquire land. (right)

Family Fury: Vajramani, 50, along with his mother Siddhamma, 74 and wife Padma, 45 who own 32 quintals of land say that they will have to eat mud if the BDA takes away their land and home (left), as Ramaswamy, right, 50, with wife Mahalakshmi, 38, and daughter Mamta, 18. They do not regret their decision to abstain from voting. (right)

M Shyamanna, 65 who has two wives and four daughters yet to be married says that the political system in this country stinks from head to toe, and adds that he can not sell his 5 acre land because of the BDA litigations against their village, (left) as N Muniraju, 45 who aslo owns 5 acres along with his 4 other brothers and with a joint family strength of 25 members, he said that the BDA is paying us 40 percent of the actual value of the land and where do they expect our 25 members to sleep and cook their daily meal.

The villagers say that they will boycott all future elections and not let any candidate in their village ever if the BDA does not stall the land acquisition. “Let the BDA cancel the acquisition first, then we'll think of something else. Until then, there is no question of voting even next year or even during the upcoming councilor polls” said the whole village in one voice.
If this happens it will put democracy to back in time to rethink where our elected democrats will be worried about, since if this issue is allowed to boil many such Ramagondanahalli's will be born in the world’s largest country which flaunts of a sovereign, socialist, secular and Democratic Republic in their constitution only on paper.