Executive order, parliamentary disorder

With four ordinances in two weeks, the question of whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being authoritarian or decisive in trying to resuscitate a flagging economy naturally arises. Monday’s ordinance easing the rules for land acquisition, forced by an Opposition that used its strength in the Rajya Sabha to block urgent legislation during the Winter Session, cannot but be widely welcomed by all stakeholders.

All are agreed, however, that this is only an emergency measure that must be passed into law by Parliament before land buyers can feel secure and $300 billion worth of stalled industrial and infrastructure projects go ahead. In keeping the compensation and benefits of the UPA’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, while doing away with restrictive clauses, such as the impossible-to-achieve consent requirements and the ill-defined Social Impact Assessment, the government has struck a balance between farmers’ interests and the development and industrialisation needs of a rapidly growing economy.

Even N.C. Saxena, a key member of the UPA’s National Advisory Council, who pushed for the 2013 law, welcomed the amendments, saying they would help the farmer by removing the need for land transactions to go through “300 hands and five years’ time”.

Further, by bringing into its ambit even the 13 laws governing such public sectors as railways, metro rail systems and atomic energy, which account for most of the land acquired by governments, the Modi government has removed the last unjust piece of the colonial-era land acquisition law that even the UPA’s 2013 law did not redress. It is clearly a smart move that will put a lot more money into a lot more people’s bank accounts and, who knows, even blunt opposition to nuclear power plants across the country.

But here’s the rub. While the amendments to the land acquisition law, or hiking FDI limits to 49 per cent in insurance, or opening up coal mining to private players cannot be faulted, using the same tool to regularise illegal colonies in Delhi smacks of political point-scoring and vote-bank politics just ahead of key polls in Delhi.

Governments cannot rule by ordinance alone. And while the BJP, when in Opposition, felt it was right to stall Parliament over corruption, and the Opposition now perforce shuts the House down over “Ghar Wapsi (homecoming)” programmes and other controversies, blocking key legislation does irreparable damage to our reputation as a raucous but functioning democracy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recourse to joint sessions of Parliament to force through legislation by using the party’s overwhelming numbers in the Lok Sabha. But that can only take the sheen off the reforms that India’s economy is crying out for.