Dangerous gamble over Land Bill

Before the government brings the already twice renewed ordinance on the controversial land acquisition legislation before Parliament to have it converted into a proper law, in case it can muster the courage to do so, it got a taste of the mood of the non-BJP state governments at the Niti Aayog consultation on Wednesday.

Chief ministers of the nine Congress-ruled states didn’t bother attending, making their opposition known loud and clear. For those tempted to see political partisanship in the Congress chief ministers keeping away, the leaders of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu also apparently saw little merit in discussing the issue at the Niti Aayog since they have expressed their unease with the changes to the 2013 land acquisition law of the UPA vintage. They, too, stayed away.
But what about the CMs present as Prime Minister Modi sought to hammer a consensus into shape on the subject? Bihar leader Nitish Kumar and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal opposed any dilution of the 2013 law. But even BJP allies like Akali Dal — part of the ruling NDA alliance — and the PDP of J&K advised caution. “Land Bill 2015 has triggered concerns within the farming community” in Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal noted.

Some voices said the states should just go ahead with their own land acquisition laws (since land is a state subject) if a consensus proved elusive in Parliament. Possibly, this is the compromise that the Prime Minister could be looking at as he seems to have been pushed into a tight corner.

His plight seems unenviable. It is not just leaders of Opposition parties and some friendly parties, but also leading front organisations of the RSS, the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, that have publicly come out in denunciation of the changes to the 2013 law that the Modi government has sought to push through the ordinance route. It is far from clear if the Monsoon Session of Parliament, to commence next Tuesday, will yield productive discussions in any field given the Prime Minister’s silence on the issue of corruption in high places under the BJP dispensation and the sullen mood of the Opposition on account of this.

If the land ordinance can’t be brought to Parliament for ratification, then Mr Modi’s high-stakes gamble would backfire, costing him political capital. In hindsight, it may have been better if he had held consultations with the states before seeking to amend the 2013 law. Many have noted the irony that a piece of legislation passed with unanimity in Parliament after intensive and lengthy consultations wasn’t permitted a chance to be implemented before the Modi government tried to torpedo its key provisions through amendments.