Divided Land: ‘Bill to mordernise, market, monetise land’

Any progressive legislation has to face a plethora of resistance from the entrenched establishment lobby and the controversy surrounding the BJP government’s Land Bill is not different. Like Dr Manmohan Singh in the Nuclear Deal with America, Mr Narendra Modi should not try for a consensus but join the battle with greater firmness and articulation.

This is a battle of two perceptions, two differing ideologies and hugely contradictory world views. If India has to emerge from the shackles of two debilitating legacies, colonialism and socialism, this bill is cardinal to its success. There can be debates on the manner in which it was brought, by the ordinance route, or the initial lack of communication on its salient features, but India cannot afford to rot again in the Rahul-Jairam fetish of reducing the country’s development story into a romantic tale of Niyamgiri worshippers and saga of stalled projects between 2004 and 2014. Mr Modi has to join this battle, for, his mandate is to change India, make India and make it the most desired destination.

The stories of farm disasters and farmer suicides are eloquently discussed in Congress rallies and cocktail circuits. Farmer suicides and village distress are best documented in books and award winning articles. But they belong to an era when the Congress had unchallenged sway over the political landscape of India.

Without going into the details of statistics one can safely argue that the top ranks in farm suicides were possessively guarded by the erstwhile Congress citadels like AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Farm suicides were the least in BJP-ruled states. While the agricultural growth stagnated at two per cent consistently at the national level under Congress, the BJP ruled states were on the top of India’s agrarian growth for over a decade at double digit and fed almost the entire nation. The other success story being Punjab where BJP is in a coalition with the Akali Dal.

Of all these, Gujarat is a sterling example because it was never known as an agrarian state. The Gujarat success so enthused India’s former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam that he asked IIM-Ahmedabad to undertake a case study to develop it as a model for the country. How did Mr Modi achieve a double-digit agriculture growth in Gujarat? When he took charge as Chief Minister half the state was reeling under drought, people with livestock used to migrate to other parts for want of water and livelihood and the state average agrarian growth was below two per cent. Gujarat success became a trigger for other BJP states to emulate. Dr Ravindra Dholakia and his team from IIM-Ahmedabad have documented the Gujarat Agricultural Trajectory.

Mr Modi has improved the investment climate in India. The economy is looking up. The Economist has found for India a rare chance to fly and emerge “the world’s most dynamic big economy.” The World Bank and rating agencies like Moodys have upgraded and projected Modi’s India as the fastest growing economy, and the possibility of a double digit growth is knocking on India’s door for the first time in history.

In a socialist paradigm, land is the basic ingredient in the production chain. Capitalist economists like Harrod and Domar held the view that growth is the function of one input, capital. In the BJP’s economic view of Integral Humanism, man is at the centre and his highest happiness the ultimate goal. Man cannot be happy if better living cannot reach villages. Mr Modi has provided better roads, hospitals, irrigation, information connectivity and education in Gujarat and this is what he is trying to ensure for India.

These facilities cannot reach rural India without investment, industrialisation. A better living condition is what the Indian farmer wants. He cannot be a victim of the vicious cycle of Indian monsoon failures. Left politicians and their ideological orphans in the Congress have waxed eloquent for 60 years about the farm miseries, shedding crocodile tears, without ever trying to find a way out. According to UPA’s own admission, '30 lakh crore stagnated due to environmental clearance because of Mr Ramesh and Ms Jayanthi Natarajan. Capital worth $ 25 billion flew out of India in the last days of the UPA regime.

For the first time, Mr Modi has attempted a solution at the national level. And in that he has stirred a hornet’s nest. Money lenders, village sharks, manipulative politicians of north India, who have not a single economic success story to tell, have rallied behind individuals like Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Gandhi and Mr Ramesh, who have never seen a real farm life. It is like the old battles against tractors, modernisation of agriculture, computerisation, land reform and abolition of zamindari.

This conspiracy against the farmer has to be exposed. No farmer wants his son to be a farmer. He is tied to his land, his destiny dictated by the success or failure of his crop. He should be given a choice to modernise, market and monitise his land. That is what the land Bill is all about. In the Congress scheme, the farmer will always pray for government patronage and protection from natural calamity. The Adivasi always lives in the forest. Is this empowering, freedom from bondage? Worshipping hills and pagan Gods? Economic mobility is the essence of development. Farmer leaders are not opposing the Bill. That is why there was no farmer leader in the Congress rally.

The land Bill is a step to marry agriculture with industry. This will encourage economic activity and revive rural economy. The land will become more valuable, demand will rise, incentivise construction and accelerate growth.

All developed nations in the world have witnessed this process. Everybody knows the problem. Only Mr Modi has tried a solution.

(The author is member, BJP National Training Programme Committee and former National Convener, BJP Intellectual Cell.)