Tuesday, September 21, 2010

PROPOSED REFORM IN LAND ACQUISITION

There is some talk these days of reform in Land Acquisition Act. I fully agree that what suited colonal rulers does not suit a more eqitable society. I am however against going 180 degrees from the present position. Before I go into this question, let us lay down some facts.

1. The Society is supreme.
2. Governments are structures created by the society for regulating some aspects of its functions. Let us not mistake the part to be the whole - the servant to be the master - the government to be the society.
3. The society can not and should not delegate all its responsibilities to the government especially to one that is capable of transmitting only 15 to 17 paise out of a rupee spent for the purpose intended ( as per the admission of no less than a person than a former Prime Minister. )
4. One peculiar Indian structure - the N.G.O. has fared no better. In fact, it has fostered what I call crony parasitism on the same lines as crony capitalism.
5. Forms of governance - Monarchy, Dictatorship (whether benevolent or otherwise), Socialism, Communism, Democracy, Plutocracy and so on are again created by the society to fulfill its needs at a given time and given circumstances. No form of governance is sacrosanct. If it does not fulfill the needs of the society, it gets changed, however slow the change may be. We just have to look at history of the past centuries of the various countries of the world to realize this.
6. There is no panacea for all our ills such as poverty, ill health, illiteracy and so on for all of India which is a multi - religious, muti - linguistic, multi - ethnic society. Different paths, different methods are required for eradicating these ills. What is true for Gujarat or Maharastra or Panjab is not true for the south or for that matter the east. Some principles followed by Mahatma Gandhi are however relevant even today.
7. We need to accept that the maturity level of the Indian society is not uniformly distributed. This is much more disturbing than the inequitable distribution of wealth or incomes. You can not for example, equate Kerala with say parts of India which kill their own offsprings for the crime of being the unwanted gender or for the crime of marrying a person not in consonance with parental idiosyncracies. One can imagine what can happen if the principle of grass roots democracy is unifdrmly applied throughout India right now.
8.Perhaps if Mahatma Gandhi had his way, he would have preferred Indians to become self - reliant and independent economically, socially, educationally, healthwise and so on before becoming politically independent but the overwhelming majority of the then existing lower rung leadership was too impatient.
9. Consequently, politics of service to the society was replaced by the politics of power over the society. Both the crony capitalism and the crony parasitism are the products of this phenomenon.

All those wanting to give 26% of profits of enterprises to the project affected people are only wanting to create a new class of zamindars - a new class of parasites. No doubt, those uprooted have to be rehabilitated, each according to his/her potential but they should not be withdrawn from productive workforce. A part of the profits must be kept aside - it could be even more than 26% - for the purpose. It must however have a time limit - till such time as rehabilitation is complete. We have not yet eradicated the old zamindari completely. Let us not create a new set of parasites. Uneducated masses with a steady unearned income and idleness could lead to evils such as drinking, gambling, womanising and so on - all at the expense of their womenfolk. I appreciate the good intentions of the proponents of the idea of profit sharing but they must not create new problems. I have given up on the political parties with their votebank politics to carry out social reforms. Those whom I would have thought as being capable of doing so appear to be muddle headed, if I may use this rather strong term. We all need to concentrate on removing social evils while simultaneously striving for economic self - sufficiency of the masses. Subsidies are the worst drugs - worst narcotics devised by our politicians to keep the poor perprtually poor and thus under their control. They can then keep on shedding crocodile tears over them while quaffing whiskey. Monarchy bred zamindari as a bulwark - a second line of defence. Our modern day rulers want to create a similar institution by withdrawing a sizeable population from the workforce. This will have long term baneful repurcussions. Same goes for our misguided intellectuals. They are adopting the agitational path in stead of going over to the villages and helping the masses to become self - reliant. Both the masses and the intelligentia are behaving like children. One hopes to please the Sarkar Mai - Baap while the other wants to coerce the Mai - Baap by throwing tantrums and creating a ruckus. All those who wish to better the lot of the dispossesed, had better become proactive, engage themselves in rehabilitation activities, train the victims in alternative trades and professions, taking help from a fund created for the purpose. The hand of the victims certainly needs to be held till they become self - sufficient. Mahatma and not Mao is our ideal.

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