The good doctor fixes you. The crook makes sure you are fixed enough to pay, broken enough to keep coming back!India has been ridden with many ailments ever since we realized ourselves as a nation, and socialist parties have given us lippy socialist solutions which convinced us that we are all right until we realized that we are not. Some symptoms seemed to cure at times but the cancer remains.
PM Shri Narendra Modi, while speaking at the Niti Aayog meeting, identified poverty as India’s biggest problem, and rightly so. Add to that unemployment, more mouths to feed with a bludgeoning population, stagnating agricultural productivity, low rate of industrial growth etc.
The message about manufacturing-led growth is so diffuse, it is hardly an expert opinion now that India needs growth driven by the manufacturing sector for employment generation and pacing up poverty alleviation. And it doesn't matter what, except news and outrage, any manufacturing unit requires land for setting shop.
World Bank estimates suggest that just by halving delays due to road blocks, tolls and other stoppages, India could cut freight times by some 20-30 percent and logistics costs by an even higher 30-40 percent. Better Infrastructure alone can go a long way in boosting the competitiveness of India’s key manufacturing sectors by 3 to 4 percent of net sales.
The prospects sure look exciting but try to close doors on your miseries, you shall find the #AdarshLiberal foot blocking it. Infrastructure development and manufacturing growth, both have massive land requirements. But on any land that anyone wants to acquire “Legitimately”, you shall find an activist squatting, fulfilling his/her life’s purpose by stalling anything that might work. Pick out any major infra, mining, industrial project announced in India, high-profile activist careers will be definite byproducts of the project. Between Medha Patkar(NBA) and S.P. Udaykumar(PMANE), India is seeking to go Nuclear from Hydel, but activism is still the same struggle to stay useless.
One naturally wonders what is so wrong with development projects that someone or the other is always threatening to starve to death because of it! Motivated agenda apart, there are multiple strains which need to be eased before the land acquisition process smoothens out. Land means different things to different people. Broadly categorizing key stakeholders as land users (owners or tenants) and land appropriators (Government or Business), the appropriators are driven towards the land by Prospects of growth. On the other hand, the land users are driven by insecurity from loss of livelihood. These expectations/fears must be reconciled for land to switch hands smoothly.
Acquisition of land was done under the British formulated Land Acquisition Act of 1894 until recently. It was a draconian law made to suit British interests and facilitated land grab from hapless Indians. Indians themselves used this law until 2013 with some inadequate amendments in 1962 and 1984. The trick employed by the then ‘socialist’ Governments was that used by the crooked doctors- treat symptoms, make sure the cure is not permanent and the patient returns!
The 1894 law enabled the government to acquire private lands under the “Eminent Domain”doctrine. The government could then use it as it wished, they could even give it to private businesses. The state could willfully reduce itself to a muscleman evicting people from their lands in the interests of private business houses. The “Urgency clause” would enable the government to uproot habitations at short notice and without adequate compensation. It suited the British and it would be anybody’s guess that post-independence it warmed many pockets of the high and mighty in governments. An attempt was made in the name of correcting this anomaly in 1962 by adding a provisio mentioning that government can acquire lands for Companies only for “Public Purpose”, the term being vaguely defined. The “mischief, defect and lacuna” (terms officially used in statement of intent of the 1984 amendment act) was not corrected until 1984.
The 1984 amendment defined “Public Purpose”. Scope of acquisition for private companies under the clause meant for Public enterprises, was curtailed and compensation was increased. Even so, Rehabilitation & resettlement were not addressed. Government role in acquisition for private business was effectively discouraged. It is difficult for private players to acquire land without government support, specially with India’s long marriage with socialism and the presence of NGO activist Baraatis. India has not had a good track record in rehabilitation & resettlement either.
In order to create a Land regime encompassing acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement, the LARR was mooted, the bill passed in August 2013. This was a bill drafted by the supra-governmental NAC, a congregation of NGOs led by Ms Gandhi. The bill that came out did address the compensation and rehabilitation but made land acquisition for businesses and PPP projects a walk up the hill, and a steep one at that. As if the 80% consent requirement was not enough, Social Impact Assessment was introduced. It is this unstandardized, immature process which shall decide the fate of businesses and infrastructure projects. It is a process similar to Environmental Impact Assessment and one can only wish it doesn’t go that way. Need for EIA clearance gave us the“Jayanti Tax”. SIA could well give vested interest groups, the right to extort. To be fair, SIA is a noble sounding exercise, but given the vagueness, its veracity is uncertain. It is in use at many places, but making an un-standardized process critical, at a time when the economy is crying for help, is not judicious.
In addition to the above issues, 13 laws such as The Atomic Energy Act-1962, The National Highways Act-1956, SEZ Act-2005, Land Acquisition(Mines) Act, 1885, The Railways Act-1989 etc which involve Land acquisition, were outside the purview of LARR. Acquisition under any of these offsets the relief provided by LARR. The crook of a doctor shows up again!
NDA’s proposed land bill (LAB) seeks to correct these anomalies by including these 13 laws under the Rehab-resettlement process, ensuring adequate compensation. The balance between expectations of businesses and PSUs on one hand and the land holders on the other is being attempted. All the merits of LARR in terms of rehabilitation and compensation have been retained while consent requirement has been brought down from a near impossible 80% to a manageable 70%. SIA has been kept off 5 strategic and development-critical areas namely industrial corridors, public private partnership projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence.This comparative view should make it clear that NDA’s LAB aims for balance and the bill itself promises a stable Land regime in future. We look to be moving in for a cure. That is perhaps what torments the crooked old doctors of the Indian social, political, economic space. A stable land regime is an issue lost forever!
Sentiments related to land have been used to manufacture revolutions. Land has shed blood, created rebels, right from the time of Deccan agrarian riots back in the 19th century, to the more recent anti-POSCO agitations. Land agitations have turned yesterday’s doping hippies to today’s revolutionary leaders. The promise of land reforms and “operation Bargha” among others reasons, ensured that the communists ruled West Bengal for 34 years. Land has always been a Fat Cow of a political issue which the left and ultra-left have coveted. NDA’s LAB is a likely #BeefBan staring in the face of opposing forces! I do not claim that LAB will magically solve all of India’s problems but I do emphasize that LAB is a balanced bill, an improvement on all past acquisition bills and “balance” (of expectations) is the key to a stable land regime.
It is time for India to be informed, to choose the good doctor, the one who is out to cure the illness!
Post Script: Baiting Bihar in the land-agitation hook:
Upcoming Bihar elections, though they do not figure in the land acquisition discourse overtly, are a key focus of all detractors. Land is a touchy issue in Bihar. There are good chances that Land agitation will snowball into a big issue prior to Bihar elections. JDU under Nitish and RJD under a reactivated-post-vacation Lalu Yadav are working to make sure it does. In my recent visit to Bihar, I noticed that their propaganda is aggressive, effective and unrelenting. Even kids in a proudly identifying “Kattar-BJP samarthak” (hardcore BJP supporter) village in Siwan were disillusioned, the elders, quite understandably would be out of their wits.
Bihar is a place of extremes when it comes to land. It has some of the most fragmented land holdings in India. With 76% population dependent on agriculture there is a high dependency on land, it translates into heightened insecurity with the land acquisition bill. On the other extreme are those who invest in land and measure status and success with the size of landholding they possess. The former feeds crowds in rallies, the latter feeds coffers of political parties. Both are afraid they will have to let go of their land!A good nudge, and all of these sections will vote, not for BJP, not for JDU or RJD but against LAB. Perhaps that is what is being attempted. There is no greater joy for most of our political commentators than to come out and say “The Modi wave is over”!
To remain in the fray in Bihar, BJP will need to kick off a massive campaign to nullify the propaganda well in time.
