Law and the land

With Rahul Gandhi’s midnight “arrest” from Bhatta Parsaul on May 11,the stakes have been dramatically raised in the politics over land agitation in Greater Noida. The Congress pledged solidarity with the farmers,levelling a slew of allegations against the Mayawati government on the method of acquisition and on the police action against protesters; party workers elsewhere in the country demonstrated against the detention of the Congress general secretary. BJP leaders,including Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh,courted arrest. Indeed,there was no let-up in the scramble this week to be taken into custody as a certificate of allegiance with protesting masses. And even as her government reimposed prohibitory orders in the area,Chief Minister Mayawati joined the war of words by charging her political opponents with manoeuvres to disturb law and order in the state.

There is no doubt that our politics needs to actively — and responsibly — engage with issues of land. And what the agitation in Greater Noida has highlighted is a key aspect: as land is acquired in a booming real estate economy,what is the best way of arriving at an appropriate package that takes into consideration the benefits that could accrue from its eventual use? Experience is little guide,as the legal framework draws from the vastly outdated Land Acquisition Act,whose amendment has been hanging fire in Parliament — it had been blockaded for electoral reasons by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool,but that absolves no political party for allowing the stalemate to continue. In the absence of a national consensus,and after Singur obviously mindful of the political blowback that could be provoked,state governments have been improvising on the run. Haryana,for instance,came up with a progressive way of compensating farmers; and to her credit,Mayawati’s government has enhanced the compensatory mechanism to benefit erstwhile owners from the development on acquired land. Yet,understandably,land owners can be anxious that they have not pushed the envelope enough. That is,in fact,the anxiety fuelling the current protests.

The looming assembly elections in UP,that must be held by next summer,are clearly an incentive for political parties to hop into the thick of these protests. But if each party thinks it can beneficially ride the rage without demonstrably offering its way of arriving at a fair and just compensation package,it will cut little ice with the voters.