The All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM) strongly condemns the recent decision by the Modi government’s Cabinet to approve an Ordinance amending the Land Acquisition Act 2013. It is to be noted that the 2013 law, which the current Ordinance seeks to amend, was itself the result of farmers’ agitations and a widespread recognition that farmers and peasants across the country have been bearing the brunt of forcible land acquisition, corporate land grab, displacement and state repression. The 2013 law on land acquisition provided for some rights to landholders, by bringing rehabilitation and compensation into the ambit of land acquisition and by somewhat expanding the scope of peoples’ and landholders’ consent before land acquisition is permitted. The recent amendments in this law put in place by the Modi government’s Ordinance are a direct assault on any democratic content within the 2013 law.
The Ordinance seeks to do away with two crucial features of the 2013 Act – which had mandated conducting Social Impact Assessments (SIAs) before land acquisition in certain cases, and which also mandated consent of a certain percentage of project affected people. The Ordinance, in removing and diluting these clauses, is clearly delivering yet another death blow to farmers’ rights and democratic decision-making. The Modi government is trying to justify these crucial dilutions by claiming that the Ordinance will not affect the ‘compensation’ package available to landowners. The fact of the matter is that not just the ‘legal’ landowners, but several others depend on land for their livelihood. When the consent clause is diluted or done away with for PPP and Private projects in certain sectors, this not just makes land acquisition almost a fait accompli in a most undemocratic fashion, it moreover affects several people dependent on the local economy who are not even eligible for compensation since they do not own the land acquired.
The Ordinance also reportedly removes the 2013 law’s provisions for retrospective application of the land acquisition act, which could provide some relief to farmers who had been displaced without being adequately compensated, or whose land were not utilised after acquisition. Removing the provision for retrospective application in effect leaves several crores of people displaced by various projects without any recourse for justice.
Moreover, the Modi government’s choice of taking the undemocratic Ordinance route, and bypassing discussions and deliberations in the Parliament is highly condemnable. Such authoritarian moves of bypassing democratic decision-making structures – clearly dictated by the needs and greed of the corporate sector – are deeply dangerous to participative democracy. Clearly, through this Ordinance, the Modi government has chosen to facilitate corporate land grab of farmers’ land, through hook or crook. It has no intention whatsoever of addressing the urgent needs of farmers, even as farmers continue to commit suicide every single day all over the country, as a result of the government’s economic policies. AIKM has called for nationwide protests on Jan.2, 2015 to oppose this Ordinance on land acquisition, and to press for farmers’ rights in face of the pervasive forced land acquisition and displacement.
