This is with reference to your heavily advertised claim that you do not make promises, you only keep promises. You have referred to the promises made in the National Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and the fulfillment of those during your stewardship of the country in the last four years. I must confess that I am unable to share your elation. In a country where the bulk of the population depends on agriculture and land is still the largest single means of sustenance, the area of darkness which eclipses your government’s achievements is your complete silence regarding the promise made in the common minimum programme — that “revenue administration will be thoroughly modernised and clear land titles will be established”. A new record-of-rights, for rural and urban areas was to be prepared based on the new survey and state-guaranteed titles to land were to replace the present record-of-rights, in which such ‘title’ is only presumptive.

Even before it was included in the UPA government’s CMP, the Congress had identified in its 2003 Shimla Sankalp, “the acceleration of the implementation of land reforms and the initiation of reforms in land laws and record-of-rights to enable the conversion from the present system of presumptive titles to conclusive titles guaranteed by the state” as one of the core priorities “in keeping with its beacon Congress ka hath, garib ke sath”. This was followed by a letter from Sonia Gandhi to all Congress chief ministers asking them to place this on top of their governance agenda.

You are presumably aware that even those who own no land also have rights in land and it is on these rights that their livelihood depends. If the judicial system of the country is groaning under the volume of litigation which it is unable to cope with, the reasons are not far to seek. The entire structure of land administration in India and with it the relations based on property could have been transformed by this one single measure, if only your government had evinced some interest. That, alas, was not to be. This is a shining example of what politicians say when they are out of power and what they do when they are in power. Meanwhile, the land mafia continued to flourish. For them power flows from the gun or the gunny bags, and no one dares clip their wings. Certainly not a government which merely swears by the aam admi. Globalisation, of which you were and continue to be the principal architect, has made land a coveted commodity as never before. No matter where, land prices have skyrocketed. The tattered record-of-rights was not designed to contain these volcanic forces. Nor were the officials entrusted with the task of maintaining it equipped to face this formidable challenge. This betrayal of the people of India is now being quietly buried beneath the litany of “achievements”. As islands of affluence continue to grow, so does the continent of darkness engulfed in deprivation. The state guaranteeing land titles goes beyond rights to prime properties, it also embraces entitlements based on the community’s rights to resources. It could well have been the aam admi’s Magna Carta.

I hoped that with the Congress coming back to power, the country’s land revenue system which has been handcuffed to history could now be transformed, and provide a solid foundation on which the vast edifice of administration could stand, safe, secure and virtually immune to challenge. However absolutely nothing happened. This is in spite of a letter in July 2005 written to you by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, in her capacity as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council. Here are some extracts from that letter:

—A very large percentage of the people in India live in the rural areas and derive livelihoods, wholly or partially, from land. The compilation and updation of land records is, therefore, a particularly significant measure to instil a sense of security in the farming community and to encourage investments for higher land productivity, especially in the establishment of clear titles to land. Economical access of rural people to land records would be of all-round benefit to the farmers, including easier credit, quicker land conversions and lesser litigation.

— A scheme for conversion of presumptive titles to land into conclusive titles may be introduced as an integral part of the new centrally sponsored scheme. The records can then be thrown open in the public domain by computerising and Web-enabling them to facilitate anyone wanting to register a complaint or draw the attention of the department to discrepancies in the records. The draft record of rights prepared for final updation may be made open for public inspection and also made available electronically through the information dissemination centres.

— When pending mutations are carried out for the updation of land records, an institutional mechanism should be drawn up for the involvement of the panchayats. In undisputed cases, conclusiveness of the title may be recorded straightaway which will be the basis of guaranteeing title to land.

— After the new scheme has been launched, the Centre could draft a model law to be enacted by the states to impart legal status to the various features of the scheme. .”

I am mystified by this conspiracy of silence. Today the whole system has a vested interest in this chaos — obviously, those in authority can manipulate the system the way they like. But at the cost of the aam admi in whose name the Congress came back to power. . It has been said that the essence of tragedy is not suffering but irony. The irony of ironies is that you promised but you failed to deliver. I am afraid, Mr. Prime Minister, you still have miles to go to keep your promises.

D. C. Wadhwa is professor emeritus and former director, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics