We are with you 100%: No longer disillusioned, corporates backs Modi govt's land bill

Even as the Land Acquisition Bill faces stiff opposition from various quarters, industry body CII has firmly backed the proposed legislation saying it is not “anti-farmer” and will facilitate the creation of rural infrastructure. In fact India Inc is busy holding back-channel discussions with various political parties and states to help the bill sail through.

The new CII president Sumit Mazumder was quoted by The Telegraph as saying corporate India not only endorses the new government’s speed of decision making and implementation agenda, but has also been holding talks with several state leaders to convince them to help in getting the land bill passed in Parliament.

“Our country is not going to move forward and develop unless industrialisation takes place. Every country in the world has moved from agriculture to industrialisation…Industrialisation is very important for the growth of any country and that is why the Bill is very important. It has been drafted very carefully and is fair to all sides,’ Mazumdar was quoted as saying by the Business Standard.

India Inc’c support for the bill stems from the belief that the land ordinance will exempt projects in key sectors from mandatory consent requirements and is supportive of farmers who want to sell their land and receive good compensation, which will in turn help the government facilitate building of rural infrastructure.

The industry body also believes that the “ordinance route has to be taken for quick decision-making”.

Apart from CII, industry veteran Ratan Tata on 16 April came out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and advised Corporate India to “not get disillusioned so fast”.

“All of us should understand that it’s a new government, and we need not get disillusioned and dissatisfied with so fast,” he said during the convocation of the Mumbai International School of Business Bocconi.

“There’s a great deal of hope in the inspirational leadership of Modi. He is still in the early stages of defining what he hopes to deliver a new India. The implementation hasn’t really taken form this year. But we still have to give him the opportunity to implement what he has promised,” Tata said while replying to a question on the economy under the Modi government.

CII’s and Tata’s support to the land bill comes at a time when India Inc has been voicing its disillusionment with the slow pace of reforms and ease of doing business.

Firstpost had reported earlier this month that India Inc’s confidence in the Modi government, seems to be dipping due to the slow pace of reforms, the tax demands being slapped on some of the companies and “the seemingly unchecked Hindutva agenda of some right wing groups”.

“Sheen is falling of Modi govt in the context of promises, and gradual delivery . Need to move fast, hope interest rates are reduced today ,“ Marico’s Harsh Mariwala had tweeted on April 7.

Sheen is falling of Modi govt in the context of promises , and gradual delivery .Need to move fast ,hope interest rates are reduced today

— Harsh Mariwala (@hcmariwala) April 7, 2015

Heard from a leading politician that if elections were held today Nda will barely win 200 seats in spite of weak opposition

— Harsh Mariwala (@hcmariwala) April 7, 2015

HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh too recently said that India Inc’s patience was wearing thin with little improvement on ease of doing busines.

The new FICCI president Jyotsna Suri stated recently : “It (RSS) is certainly diluting the focus and it is uncalled for. It is detrimental to the development agenda…..The government should do some straightening out”.

The ASSOCHAM  was more forthrigh t: “The `ghar wapasi’ agenda of any section of society will create a huge dent in the growth agenda…..but will invest in a country where a law and order situation may arise over a period of time”.

These are all voices being raised by the staunchest supporters of Narendra Modi who had backed him to the hilt during the election campaign, which is why perhaps the passage of the land bill is now inevitably the biggest political challenge for the Prime Minister, if he hopes to win back not just the countryside but his most crucial vote bank-the corporates and big business.

Earlier, the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, had cleared the Ordinance with nine changes that addressed several grouses raised by farmers’ organisations and some civil society groups. The government will now get another chance to pass the Bill in the Rajya Sabha when it meets again for the budget session starting today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly said the government, after incorporating the nine amendments to the ordinance, will not make any further concessions to the legislation, but the opposition, led by the Congress and the Left bloc, are determined to block the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha where the government is in a hopeless minority.

And the CII believes the land bill post the amendments is fair, as it provides for market-based compensation, jobs to one member of the family which will lose land and also provides for adequate rehabilitation of those affected by the acquisition.

A major complaint against the first ordinance was that it allowed land acquisition for the creation of social infrastructure. The fear was that politicians would acquire land for schools and hospitals which would then be run for profit. This clause has now been dropped in the amended bill.

Moreover, Mazumder believes the land bill takes care of stakeholder interests and restrains the state from acquiring land for purposes other than critical needs such as defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects.

The bill exempts the five categories from provisions of the LARR Act, 2013, which requires the consent of 80 percent of landowners for private projects and 70 percent of landowners for PPP projects. It also exempts these five categories from social impact assessment on land losers.

Yet ensuring that the bill, which the government could not get converted into a legislation in the first half of the budget session in Parliament, actually passes through the Upper House will be a tall task for the Modi government. The opposition led by the Congress seems to be in in no mood to oblige to the government and has already initiated a fresh attack againt the land bill.

Apart from the opposition, even farmer’s associations are against the bill. Farmer’s associations like Bharatiya Kishan Union, Gram Sewa Samiti, Delhi Grameen Samaj and Chogama Vikas Avam, have filed a petition against the promulgation of the land acquisition ordinance. They allege that the re-promulgated land ordinance is unconstitutional and is beyond one’s legal authority of the Constitution and alleged that it is a “colourful exercise of power” by the executive appropriate law-making powers of the legislature.

On Sunday , Rahul Gandhi, who finally returned from his 57-day sabbatical, at a rally before more than 1,000 farmers in New Delhi, accused PM Modi of giving away farmland to industrialists who supported him during last year’s election. He added that the loans taken from the corporates would be repaid with land belonging to farmers.

Modi was quick to jump into an image-saving exercise and responded almost immediately to Gandhi’s latest charges , defending his government’s record of helping the poor in a meeting of party officials on Sunday. He asserted his government was working in the interests of farmers, referring to the decision to compensate those who had suffered a crop loss following unseasonal rains.

Dwelling on measures his government had initiated for the benefit of the poor, Modi exhorted his party MPs to highlight these while making a contrast between his government and the previous ones on the similar lines as ‘black and white’ and ‘colour’ in the television world.

A rather optimistic Modi expressed hope that the second phase of the Budget Session, which begins today, will be a productive one.

Parliament  session begins today. I look forward to a productive session, filled with constructive debates on several issues.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 20, 2015

But tussles over land acquisition have locked infrastructure developments worth crores. The land law enacted by the Congress government in 2013 was aimed at giving farmers a fairer deal than a British colonial-era rule that gave authorities unbridled power to take land. But businesses say its stringent provisions have made purchasing land almost impossible, contributing to a slump in capital investment in India.