Land Bill: With allies' and Opposition's united criticism, is PM Modi on backfoot for first time?

Prime minister Narendra Modi is not one to admit mistakes easily, especially in Parliament. Modi often brazens out opposition barbs with resolute silence or scathing counter-attacks. But on April 23 he came close to conceding that his government may not have always been right. 

"We all have to think where we went wrong, which wrong turn did we take, what did we do wrong before, what did we do wrong in the past 10 months," the prime minister told fellow parliamentarians; his voice sombre, the tone conciliatory as he spoke on farmers' distress.

It was the day after a farmer allegedly hung himself to death from a tree amidst hundreds of people gathered for an Aam Aadmi Party rally. Ever since the government promulgated the land acquisition ordinance on December 31, 2014, the massive tide of popularity that Modi had whipped up for himself, has ebbed somewhat. 

The aura of invincibility was dented by the BJP's massive loss in the Delhi state elections. Still, the prime minister's personal charisma remained largely undiminished. That too reduced somewhat when unseasonal rains and hailstorms devastated standing crops in many states, wreaking havoc with the finances of lakhs of farmers. 

It didn't help the government that calamity struck when it was trying to push through legislation that would make acquiring agricultural land for large projects easier. The government was exposed to widespread criticism over disaster management though much of it lies in the states' domain. It was also cornered for not raising minimum support prices for crops enough.

It filled the opposition Congress' sails with wind, allowing its on-off leader Rahul Gandhi to stage a somewhat stormy return. The dramatic incident of the alleged suicide at the AAP rally was caught on camera and loop-played on national television till Gajendra Singh, the dead Rajasthan farmer, somehow became the symbol of frustration and anger spawned by freak weather, falling commodity prices and a legislation that is gaining notoriety as anti-farmer. 

The multiple issues, though substantively separate, are coagulated in a growing perception that the Modi government is insensitive to farmers' concerns. Ramlakhan Yadav, the pradhan of Zafarpur village in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, says Modi was voted to power on the promise of better crop prices and farmer-friendly policies.

"We had looked forward to better days, but are yet to see them." He is most cut up with the land acquisition bill that is currently on the table in Parliament. "There is no clarity in it of how our compensation will be calculated," says Yadav. He also fears that farmers will be stripped of legal recourse. "We have learnt that the right of farmers to challenge the acquisition in court would also be snatched away. The way things look right now the new law seems scary."

Even as the land acquisition bill was generating heat, unseasonal rains and hailstorms destroyed standing crops in several states. According to the agriculture ministry's latest estimates, the weather affected 18.98 million hectares. The government did respond fairly quickly, deploying its best assets to the states. Senior Cabinet members such as agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, home minister Rajnath Singh and finance minister Arun Jaitley toured states instead of the usual practice of sending bureaucrats. The government even increased compensation. 

Earlier, it used to pay compensation if the damage was assessed to be of at least half the crop. It has now decided to compensate even if only a third of the crop is damaged. Radha Mohan Singh told ET the government was doing its best to provide relief to the affected farmers.

In addition to compensation for damaged crops, Singh said the government was trying to ensure the minimum support price system benefi ts the maximum number of farmers. Yet the clouds that crept up on unsuspecting farmers also cast its shadow on the Modi government, which was trying hard to push the land bill. Even many Sangh Parivar entities turned critics. "The basic problem is that the government lacks a long-term plan. 

The government is not even thinking about it," says Arun Ojha, national convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) offshoot that advocates promoting local industry over foreign investment. "The government cannot see beyond a pro-industries development model. This will only attract nature's curse in the long run."

"Things are ominous," a senior functionary of the RSS, the mothership of the Sangh Parivar, including the BJP, told ET. He says the government has failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. "Though the land bill is not related to farmers' distress, it appears insensitive on the part of the government to keep pushing for it at this juncture.

They have to slow down," he says. At least one BJP member of Parliament appears to be ring-fencing himself from the fl ak. Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi, disturbed by the state of farmers in his constituency, has decided to adopt some of them. Not commenting on whether the government effort was enough, Gandhi said he had decided to take civil action. 

"To begin with, I am adopting fi ve families and paying them Rs 1 lakh each. I have approached the BJP organisation and other well-off people to come forward and adopt distressed farmer families." 

While the government and farmers appear equally distressed, the Congress has got new wind in its sails. Till a few weeks ago, the party was ducking jokes about its "missing leader" Rahul Gandhi who had gone on a two-month vacation to undisclosed destinations. Now Gandhi has returned and quickly positioned himself as a friend of farmers unlike, in his words, "the government for the suits".

"The problem with Prime Minister Modi and his government is the manner in which they are obsessed with humouring a select group of industrialists and corporates," says AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad who is in charge of agrarian states such as Punjab and Haryana for the Congress. 

"Understandably, the government has no time to focus on dealing with the serial issues that have plunged our farmers' lives into crises." Up until December last year, the Modi government appeared to be sure-footed. It introduced the land acquisition bill immediately after the Parliament's winter session, giving the impression it was too eager to oblige industrialists who have been complaining of legal hurdles in buying land for factories and infrastructure projects. 

Yet, the fi nance ministry replied to a recent RTI query that only 8% of projects were stalled due to problems related to land acquisition. Talking to ET from Jaipur, Rajasthan PCC chief Sachin Pilot said the Congress will fi ght the land bill inside Parliament and on the streets. 

Pilot said as a party that heralded economic reforms, the Congress is neither opposed to industry or investment but it is also committed to the cause of farmers. "When we see the Modi government changing the Land Acquisition Act by incorporating provisions that will help the takeover of farmers' land easily — without the consent clause, without provisions for fair compensation, without safeguard for fertile lands — the Congress party will not take it lying down," he said.

BJP's fellow travellers too are not happy with diluting the consent clause. The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers' organisation of the RSS, is opposed to acquiring land without a majority agreeing. BKS general secretary Prabhakar Kelkar told ET the government should have been more patient with the ordinance and the bill. 

He said the organisation is not opposed to projects that will bring development and prosperity to rural areas but it will oppose land acquisitions for projects such as high-speed trains. 

The senior RSS functionary told ET that when the Modi government was sworn in, a much-regarded astrologer in South India had issued an ominous warning: "The time and day of the swearing in is not auspicious and the government will never be comfortable on the fi nancial and economic front." 

He said he wouldn't blame the stars. It was the government that had failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. 

Co-opting farmers into development

Unnao district, some 80 km from Lucknow, bears testimony that farmers could be willing partners in development if the incentive is right. The UP government is currently acquiring land for a six-lane expressway connecting Agra to the state capital.

It has almost completed buying land for the 302-km road in just seven months without a single protest. "We had initially opposed giving up the land. But later officials came to our doorstep and we gained confidence," says Devesh Kumar of Tala Sarai village in Unnao who got Rs 45.60 lakh for less than two bighas of their family land. 

"We offered four times the circle rate to ensure farmers get a good price and have distributed more than Rs2,500 crore as compensation till now," he says. 

SOURCE: Economic Times