Rahul must stop attacks on Adani, writes Rajiv Kumar

The Congress party, led by its vice president, Rahul Gandhi (RaGa) has sharpened its attacks on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on grounds of discretionary land allotments and crony capitalism.

RaGa has not shied away from naming businessmen like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani who, according to him, have benefited from Modi's benevolence in land allotment and environmental clearance etc.

This is perhaps a last ditch attempt by the Congress to denigrate the Gujarat development model, which has been Modi's most important unique selling proposition for the forthcoming elections.

It is therefore important to examine the factual basis of this recent attack to prevent voters from being led astray and for the debate to remain focused on rapid development and good governance that are the key issues facing the country today.

Transparency

The most important point to remember is that land is necessary for industrialisation, urbanisation and overall economic modernisation. Good governance demands land is not used (or for that matter spectrum) for maximising government revenues but to generate employment by encouraging manufacturing and industrialisation.

Such an approach would rule out auctioning of government land and instead supporting a modality that uses land to attract job creating investments.

From all accounts, it is clear in Gujarat, land allotment has been done in a transparent manner after securing proper consent of the gramsabha/ grampanchayat and the price is arrived at after an appropriate valuation process that scrupulously follows a three- stage process involving the District Collector, Chief Town Planner and the State Evaluation Committee. There is an additional safeguard that any land whose valuation is above Rs 50 lakh, is rechecked by two other committees.

The Supreme Court confirmed the transparency of this land allotment process in Gujarat by stating that "The Land Acquisition Act has become a fraud. It seems to have been devised by people with a sick mind who had scant regard for the welfare of the common man. It is time the Act is scrapped, But there is one state from where we do not receive any such complaints.Look at Ahmedabad which is developing but there are no complaints from that place. They have the same offi-cers of the same cadre as in the rest of the country," the court said, adding officers from other states can train under their Gujarat counterparts."

The same policy has been in vogue since 1956 pursuant to which crores of square feet of land have been allotted, much of it in fertile agricultural land, by successive Congress governments. Also since the time of the British Empire until now, the Government of India and Gujarat have been allotting land on lease basis for saltrelated production without auction.

Non- discriminatory

Gujarat seems to have implemented a transparent, rule bound and non- discriminatory land allotment policy. It is perhaps because of this efficient and transparent policy that not only Ambani and Adani but other top companies like the Tatas, Maruti, GM, Mahindra, Hero, Zydus Cadilla, Torrent and many others have flocked to Gujarat in the last 12 years.

While it is true that only a fraction of the investment promised during ' Vibrant Gujarat' actually materialises, it is also evident investors have preferred Gujarat to other states because of its hassle free investment environment. To now criticise it by calling it the ' toffee model of development' may rebound on RaGa and not improve Congress's electoral prospects.

It's been argued the high court ordered the government of Gujarat and the Adani group to replace the village common grazing land. The fact is the high court had recommended to examine if any available grazing land could be allotted to the village.

And the Sunita Narain Committee Report cites the case of 161 hectares of the 404 hectares of land in the village of Zarpara being returned to the village by the Adani group ( p. 72). Moreover, legally the state government does not need court permission to re- acquire the commons land as it is leased to the village and can be re- acquired if in broader public interest.

Contradiction

The Gujarat government requires a 30% premium be collected over and above the land price from the industrial promoter and given as compensation to panchayats that lose their grazing land. And from available evidence, the Adanis have paid the stipulated land price and the 30% premium where required.

By attacking Ambani and Adani as being favoured by Modi, RaGa may have contradicted his own mantra of a partnership between people and industrialists as the way forward for the country. Both these business houses have created enormous shareholders value and perhaps led the effort to spread the equity investment culture in the middle class. Moreover, RaGa must know both these business houses have invested all across the country.

Adani has only 35% of its investment in Gujarat with assets in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, AP, Karnataka and Assam, some of which have long standing Congress governments.

Similarly, Reliance has investments in Maharashtra, Punjab, UP and virtually all across the country with its network of optical fibres, gas pipelines and retail stores. It's important to remember Ambani's rise is linked to its relations with successive Congress governments and therefore it hardly behoves RaGa to attack him pretty much out of the blue.

It would be far better for the Congress to focus attacks on real issues facing the people today. It is counterproductive to trivialise important development issues facing the people by talking of the 'toffee model of development' as RaGa has done, thereby belittling Gujarat's achievements.

It should be clear even to RaGa that people are not buying that storyline anymore.

Instead, Congress should have confidence to showcase its achievements so that the people are faced with a real choice rather than be subjected to more muck- raking in the remaining month of campaigning.

The writer is Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and former Director of ICRIER.