Since land has become the key source of assets and capital, issues related to regulating its use are not key to the orientation of most political parties
Over the past few months, as election fever gripped the nation, there have been two significant movements to highlight land issues. One has been that of the massive and well-organised protest followed by a relay hunger strike, led by Sonam Wangchuk, for Ladakh to have eco-sensitive land policies and for its Sixth Schedule status to be restored. The other has been the less visible but persistent and peaceful protest, including a threat to boycott the elections, by farmers of 13 villages around Devanahalli near the Bengaluru International Airport, for the government to rescind the notification to acquire 1,777 acres of land to set up a new SEZ. In these and many other contexts, land, its allocation, rights of communities, and rights of farmers have become central issues. Yet, in the manifestos of the major political parties — or campaigns — there is little mention of these issues or an attempt to address policies related to land.
Issues of access to land, rights of communities, region-specific policies, use of land, etc, have marked the political economy of central India (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s manifesto makes no mention of the Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act but states that the party will facilitate real estate growth by assuring speed and ease of completion under the Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA) if it comes to power. The Congress manifesto flags concern over the rise of the “billionaire raj”, but reduces land issues to merely establishing “an authority to monitor the distribution to the poor of government land and surplus land under the land ceiling Acts” and indicates that it will retain the rights of gram panchayats to have veto power in deciding land issues under the LARR Act.
The manifesto of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPI(M) claims to ensure the reversal or the dilution of land ceiling laws, implement land reform, provide joint titles to women, retain the original definition of “public purpose” in the LARR Act, and to establish land tribunals to expedite resolutions to land related legal issues. But, the CPI(M)’s recent record on land rights and issues is far from heartening as its actions in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal and its backing for the Adani-built Vizhinjam port near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, reveal.
Issues of access to land, rights of communities, region-specific policies, use of land, etc, have marked the political economy of central India, especially in the adivasi belts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and in Kashmir, Ladakh, and much of the North East, including Manipur. Since 2014, there has been a dilution of the LARR Act and the subsequent unleashing of a violent extractive economy in much of India. Similarly, facilitating dilution and abrogating land ceiling laws, especially in the context of agricultural land has enabled the growth of a speculative economy in land which as a source of accumulation and a form of real estate has become the bedrock of unplanned and iniquitous urban growth. Since the past decade, there has been the twining of this speculative economy in land with political positions so much so that regional politicians draw not only on their caste positions but deploy political power to acquire and accumulate large tracts of land and then foray into interlinked businesses of real estate, construction, hospitality and education institutions, including universities, to emerge as formidable regional satraps. This combining of political prowess and business interests also enables politicians to retain political power over several years and elections and to pass on their business and political interests to their families.
Since land has become the key source of assets and capital accumulation, issues related to regulating its use, access and distribution are not key to the orientation of most political parties and elected representatives. The political-economic dispensation across the board is now one in which citizens’ rights to land, livelihood and life worlds get compromised for purposes of investment, profits, and employment generation. All political parties seek to avoid responding to or engaging with the key demands of the movements in Ladakh or in Karnataka’s Devanahalli regions. How should political parties stand by their promises of enabling the rights of citizens over pressures exerted by corporate groups? How can the administration of land ensure ecological sustainability while also facilitating economic growth and social justice? None of these questions are sought to be answered in the election manifestos or campaigns.
Instead, the platitudes in these manifestos are mere statements that ring hollow. They signal neither concern nor commitment to any agenda that can address the dire need to make land and its use sustainable, just and viable.
AR Vasavi is a social anthropologist based in Karnataka. The views expressed are personal
E-Paper
