Oppn eager to land a blow

Mounting the government’s defence in an atmosphere of acrimony and one-upmanship over the land bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament last month: “Please do not create an atmosphere where 'industry' and 'infrastructure' become bad words.” But BJP had more or less done the sameMahendra Ved

Land reforms and land acquisition by the authority have never been easy in a diverse society like India where a majority of people live off land. Add to that, politics, and the crux of the current tiff between the government and the opposition on the land acquisition bill would be easy to comprehend.

It is very expedient for whoever is in the opposition to pillory the moves of the government of the day, calling it anti-farmer and pro-rich. If the BJP did that while in the opposition, it is having to bite the bullet now that is in power. The terms it used while castigating the legislation of the Congress-led UPA government are by and large the same that the latter is now using.In the present case, it is the first major legislation that the Congress is getting to oppose. With its depleted strength in parliament, it has made it a “do-or-die” issue. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, not known for taking to the streets, has taken the lead and done it this time.

Helping alongside in this are parties of the Left and the north-based parties like Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad and Janata Day (United) whose vote bank is basically the farmer in the countryside. Indeed, barring the two principal parties taking turns, most of the other players are the same who opposed both the land acquisition legislations. Political rhetoric apart, the need for acquiring land for industrialisation and hence, of the bill is not in dispute. Any government worth its name needs to acquire land to push for building infrastructure and set up factories. Not doing so, or doing it without carrying the farmers along, cost the Left its government in West Bengal.

The violence at Nandigram, where the Left Front Government had purchased land, to be sold to Tata for the Nano car project, helped Mamata Banerjee to come to power. She continues to oppose the land acquisition bill, be it the UPA or the NDA government.If the UPA government faced internal dissent from within, among others, from the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the NDA, too, has a dissenter in Shiv Sena that, despite being more of an urban party, is competing for political space in Maharashtra against the BJP and Pawar in Maharashtra.

Which government’s bill is “pro-rich” or “anti-farmer” is a matter of political semantics. But pushing it through is as important for the NDA government as it was for the UPA government. Both need to facilitate land acquisition to set up a huge number of industrial projects for which investment is pouring in from within and FDI.The land is needed if India is to be the Asia hub of a huge number of products. Add to that the defence production for which government is finding ready partners in the private sector and from foreign investors. Indeed, if Modi’s “Make in India” is to succeed, more and more land has to be acquired.

Mounting the government’s defence in an atmosphere of acrimony and one-upmanship, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament last month: “"Please do not create an atmosphere where 'industry' and 'infrastructure' become bad words." But BJP had more or less done the same.If the opposition criticism is to be believed, the NDA legislation makes it easier for the investors/industrialists. Brought in through ordinance, it drastically changes the law introduced by the UPA government to make farm land available for infrastructure and industry.

Projects in five categories including Defence have been exempted from requirement of the consent of 80 per cent of affected landowners for any deal. The ordinance also ends the need for companies to conduct a social impact study of such projects, which would involve public hearings and, industry executives fear, drag on for years.Despite a backlash from the opposition, farmers' unions and activists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reportedly against revising the ordinance or the contentious provisions However, in order to propitiate the opposition, he has agreed to review the provisions.

Besides carrying the opposition along, any government has the difficult task of carrying the states that are governed by different parties. Even the Congress chief ministers opposed provisions of the UPA bill and did have apprehensions about what were considered "revolutionary" clauses - the consent clause and the one that mandated state governments to carry out social impact assessment before land acquisition.Add to that the rising role of the civil society. The NGOs are actively involved in opposing projects they consider not environment-friendly and influence local people. However, details of the bill and their nuances are likely to recede into background with opposition to the bill taking the form of street protests, making its passage more difficult than before.