Land bill row: Why it’s a personal battle for Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi: Jairam Ramesh is an extremely busy man these days. After the Narendra Modi-led government decided to have a drastic rewrite of the land Act passed by the UPA, it has become the moral responsibility for him to lead the fightback for the Congress. After all, he was the guiding force and architect of the Act of 2013 and the present dispensation has unceremoniously junked all the hard work he had put in over more than two years to get it cleared. No wonder, he is the most vocal in his opposition to the new bill. “The Land Acquisition Act 2013 was a new Act and not just an amended version of the 1894 Act of the British period. The Congress took the lead in bringing this new act to protect the farmers’ rights. The Congress is very clear. It won’t support this Bill. Bring back UPA-III in 2019, if you want to see the Land Acquisition Bill 2013 in place,” he urged the leaders of the 11 political parties, including the Left, farmers’ organisations and NGOs in a strategy meeting against ‘Land Acquisition Bill and for Recognizing Land Rights’ on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_2184865” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jairam Ramesh in a file photo. AFP[/caption] Ramesh is surprised over the BJP’s somersault after coming to power at the Centre, as the latter had not only supported but appreciated the Bill of 2013, which was promulgated into an Act. “Both Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh had welcomed the Bill on the floor of Parliament, which took more than two years to draft after series of consultations and getting several amendments as had been proposed by various parties, in place. Even, BJP MP Chandan Mitra narrated a dialogue from Bimal Roy’s Hindi film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ and sang a Rabindra Sangeet song in praise of the said Bill in Rajya Sabha,” recalled Ramesh. Why won’t the Congress support the Bill? “We have strong objection to five key areas. The new Bill 2015 brought in by the NDA has changed the five fundamental principles of the Land Acquisition Act 2013. Therefore the Congress can’t support it. During the process of drafting the Bill 2013, I had personally visited the top leaders of every party from the Right to the Left, and tried to address the issues raised by them as far as possible, and incorporate the changes proposed by them, including the BJP,” said Ramesh. In a lighter vein, he pointed at the CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury and said, “Even, I met Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, a close friend of Sitaram by visiting Kolkata twice, and to garner her support we agreed to her proposal of creation of a land bank.” The five key areas of opposition raised by the Congress in the Bill 2015: 1. Removal of Social Impact Assessment. 2. Dilution of the consent clause (80 percent for private and 70 percent for the PPP projects). 3. The Act 2013 says, if land is not utilised for five years, it should be given back to the farmer or to the land bank. But the Bill 2015 says, it could be retained even for 20 years. 4. Industrial corridor — land acquisition should be restricted to the corridor, whereas the present Bill 2015 has done away with it. 5. Compensation to farmers. However, Ramesh thinks the non-BJP parties failed to show enough courage to strongly raise voice against the ruling government. “I’m surprised why the opposition is unable to raise voice against the government. There was much hue and cry during the UPA regime, but now it has got toned down. We’re heading towards an ill-liberal democracy.” Taking a dig at Narendra Modi, without naming him, Ramesh added, “Unlike, the UPA, the present government is a ‘One-man government and maximum governance’.” Marxist leader Yechury was quick in supporting his parliamentarian friend Ramesh and said, “Earlier we asked the UPA government for a lot of amendments, which it didn’t accept. But, today we’re with them. We’ll block the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, we’ll take this movement on streets.” It’s up to Ramesh now to keep the opposition together.