Landing it right

By prorogating the Rajya Sabha, the Modi government has shot its last political bolt in convincing and cajoling the Congress and other opposition parties to approve the Land Acquisition Bill. Governments ideally take this step after the collapse of months of negotiations and deal-making. This will be followed by a grand confrontation at a Joint Session of Parliament where Modi will use his Lok Sabha majority to override dissenters in the Rajya Sabha. Modi’s defence is that his law will quickly benefit both protagonists — the industry and the farmers — whereas the UPA version, which he junked, was made in “AC rooms’’ and would have led to the same foot-dragging that marked the previous government’s tenure.

Sonia Gandhi dismissed Modi’s ‘Man ki Baat’ appeal to aspirational rural youth as a “blatant attempt to divert attention’’ from an “anti-farmer amendment’’ and accused him of “unilateralism’’. The Modi government did make nine changes to the Bill it got passed in the Lok Sabha, including the repeal of a clause that would have cheered the influential private educational and healthcare groups. But these changes haven’t impressed the Opposition in addition to some allies due to two overlapping reasons. First, the government is banking on easy land purchase norms to spur industrial growth and produce more jobs but the Congress and the Left say the consent and social impact clauses which the government diluted are essential safeguards to make land acquisition less capricious and more humane.

The second is the allies’ bother over the nature of political message from statements by the Parliamentary opposition and social activists like Anna Hazare to the agrarian community. The government will separately approach the RSS farmers’ wing and state satraps and hope for a repeat of the Minerals Bill when many potential gainers had overcome their reluctance. This time will be tougher as the allies and the uncommitted will evaluate the political risk of backing the bill when the Opposition is calling it dictatorial. And rather than showing pro-farmer inclinations, the government is unwilling to act on its pre-election promise of higher MSP, became parsimonious in compensation for crop damage and faltered in ensuring smooth urea distribution in Punjab and Haryana.