Political Football Match on Over Land Acquisition Law in India

The Land Ordinance brought in last year by the Modi government, to amend the LARR Act, 2013 was criticized widely. In fact the said Ordinance was  not needed at all, but was brought in supposedly to send right signals to the investors and the corporate world.

The 2013 act was passed after struggle of two decades and a very long deliberation, after having gone through two parliamentary Standing Committees, both of them headed by the BJP MPs (Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan receptively). The Act was supported by all the political parties including BJP in the Parliament. Still without even trying to implement and see how it works, the newly elected BJP government declared it anti industry and and anti growth and brought an Ordinance to amend the Act and get rid of all the pro farmers provisions of the act, tilting it heavily in favor of the corporate and the development agencies. 

But as the media reports are suggesting the government and the ruling party seem to be now worried about their anti-farmers tag. The Delhi state election results, where the loss in the outer rural Delhi constituencies are being linked to the Land Ordinance, have also forced the BJP to think about the electoral outcomes of the policies being pushed by the Modi government. 

The opposition parties have opposed the Ordinance and are likely to take a tough stand, especially in the Rajya Sbha, where unlike the Loksabha, BJP does not enjoy a majority. 

Additionally a farmers' campaign led by Ekta Parishad (a people's organisation focusing land rights) and supported by many known activists started a march last week which is reaching Delhi tomorrow. National Alliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM), another outfit which is an alliance of various anti-displacement and other people's organisations is also opposing the Land Ordinance since beginning and has joined the thousands of marching farmers. 

But what is bringing lots of media attention to this movement is support and presence of noted anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, who has also criticized the Land Ordinance 2014 as 'anti farmers'.  

Rashtriya Syamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP's mother organisation, has also linked the BJPs routing in Delhi elections with the Land Ordinance,besides other factors. Not only this, Bhartiya Kisan Union, the farmers body of RSS Parivar, has also attacked the BJP government for the Ordinance and has threatened to hit the streets if the Ordinance is not withdrawn. BKS has also not ruled out joining the protesting farmers led by Hazare and other activists. 

So how the Modi government plans to tackle the stiff opposition its facing outside and inside parliament over the Ordinance? is an important question.  

It seems the BJP government wants just two things at the moment: Getting rid of its anti-farmers image, the Ordinance has created and get the Ordinance bill passed in the Parliament by the political maneuvering and the floor management in the houses of the Parliament. As The Economic Times reports here, the government is not in mood to make changes in the Ordinance. 

The recent assertion of the Prime Minister Modi on his governments believe in a secular and tolerant society and his presence at the mega show of 'tilakotsav' of the two Yadav political families have been seen by some analysts as efforts to humor the Opposition before the crucial budget session of the Parliament. 

The political parties in the opposition are hardly serious in saving the LARR Act 2013. We must remember that most of the state governments, including Congress ruled governments, had reportedly favoured various radical changes in the LARR Act 2013 in a meeting of Revenue Ministers of all the states called by the Ministry of Rural Development. The Congress party, whose government had brought the 2013 Act, has also not resisted the Ordinance very strongly. Rahul Gandhi, the Vice President and young face of the party, is as usual missing in action again. 

The friendly organisations of BJP like the BKS are careful not to support the LARR 2013 in toto. BKS general secretary Prabhakar Kelkar told The Indian Express “The land acquisition Act passed by the UPA government was no doubt extreme because it made any land acquisition practically impossible. But the present government has gone to the other extreme by doing away with the 80 per cent landowners’ consent clause and social impact assessment even for land being acquired for private industry,” 

Obviously the BKS is trying to find a middle ground for the government, where the compromise could be made and the government could retain most of the anti-people provisions of the Ordinance and the BJP and the Parivar could also maintain their pro-farmers image. The land rights activists leading the farmers’ anti-Ordinance campaign must be aware, or should I say wary (!), of the presence of RSS ideologue Govindacharya in the march.

First published on the News Buzz India