The government has promulgated several ordinances, six of which are in force, but all lapse after the first week of April if they are not approved by the parliament. The government has a majority in the lower house but not in the upper house and there is a varying degree of consensus amongst the lawmakers on these ordinances.
At the moment, there are six ordinances in force of which two (Motor vehicles act and Citizenship) will likely be passed as law without much controversy. The other four are contentious to varying degrees. The Insurance ordinance was modeled on the report of a select committee, which had representation from most opposition parties and thus would likely find support. Of the other three, the ordinance on Coal mines acquires immediate importance due to the ongoing auctions but will likely find support. The most contentious and probably the most important of the ordinances is on Land Acquisition, which has brought together all opposition parties to protest in unison.
Why is Narendra Modi Wrong on the Land Acquisition Bill ?
We would like to state some facts on how historically the IL-literate & Innocent Indian farmer has been stripped of his natural Resource Right using Land Acquisition Bills where Politicians are hand in glove with Businessmen to acquire land for Industrial purpose and later divert it for some other means.
For Example, the 5,000 Acres Land in Vikhroli belonging to Godrej was given at Peanut Prices by the Corrupt Congress Govt in Maharashtra to setup various units of Godrej Industries but what has happened is Vikhroli has become a Real Estate Hub for Godrej Properties. Similar is the case of Reliance Maha Mumbai SEZ, DLF’s Land Scam in Bangalore Sonia Gandhi Land Bank Scam, Robert Vadra DLF Land Scam in Delhi, etc are just a few that come to my mind. The Indian National Corrupt Congress has used its Son-in-Law for Massive Land Bank Scams and is now protesting against the Bill as though it is spotlessly clean & this is where the Narendra Modi Govt appears to be impotent as the Rajasthan & Haryana State Governments are ruled by BJP yet do not want to take any action.
Next Modus Operandi is the State Government using Industrial Boards to acquire Agricultural Lands and then the Corrupt Ministers de-notifying the same by becoming partners in the project. This is very common practice. Just Google for “Land denotification scams scandals” and you will know yourself the Billion Dollar Land Scams. In this backdrop, we feel that the Land Acquisition Ordinance of Narendra Modi if passed in its current form will only become a Legal Tool for the Corrupt Politicians to acquire any Land in India legally and then SELL it to anybody they like without serving the purpose.
We had written much before anybody else that the Government must push the Land Acquisition Bill to Cold Storage and Focus on other reforms, else it could derail other progressive reforms and steps taken by this new Government as it is still in minority in the Upper House.