Stick to Make in India, not make a fool of India

Dear Indian Union Cabinet members,

It's been a pleasure having you good people over on my land. Hope you enjoyed your visit. It's a lovely property isn't it? Farewell.

What?

You will take my land?

I'm a communist because I have a problem with this?

One minute. Checking the dictionary.

"Communism (noun): A theory or system of social organisation in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs."

Did you read "all property is owned by the community".

Dear New Reformist Government, I am not a communist.

But you are beginning to bear a suspicious resemblance to the ghost of the USSR. Remember how that ended? They took down some big statues didn't they? See, we landowners know our history too.

Let's rewind to a more recent past. Last year.

You decided in the beginning of 2013 that 70 per cent of the affected families (for Public Private Partnership projects) or 80 per cent of them (for private companies) would have to give you their consent before you snatched away their land.

Yes, you did. Remember how you asked that your suggestions be incorporated and then pushed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill through Parliament with the UPA-2?

This was problematic as it is. Why should 70 or 80 per cent of families living in an area desired by a PPP or a company be allowed to decide the fate of 100 per cent of the families living there?

But I understand this is difficult for you to get.

You are, after all, a government that has decided that a reasonable way to pass important bills, after winning31 per cent of the country's votes, is via ordinances.

Bravo. That's exactly how great communist visionaries started out. You know, like Stalin, Pol Pot. They all saw so far into the future they overlooked the end of their ideology.

It is also such a vision, perhaps, that has inspired you to designate five "categories" for when you can kick me off my property in an ordinance passed by you on December 29.

They are: defence and defence production, rural infrastructure, including rural electrification, affordable housing and housing for the poor, industrial corridors and infrastructure and social infrastructure projects, including public private partnership projects where the ownership lies with the state.

Remarkable.

To add insult to injury, you've been boasting about how you've brought 13 Acts within the purview of this Act. You seem to be implying that this is why the ordinance was imperative.

Sadly, we landowners know our law as well.

That these 13 Acts should be brought within the Land Acquisition Act's purview "by notification", within "one year", had been decreed, under Section 105 (3) by the 2013 legislation itself.

So, pray, how is implementing something that was decreed before you were elected, within the deadline set out, your big achievement for 2014?

I reiterate: "by notification", not "by ordinance".

If you want to Make in India, just make in India please. Don't make fools of us in India.

Coming back to what your ordinance has done, your justification for this appears to be that you will compensate me with four times the market price, if my land is in the countryside, and twice as much if it's in an urban area.

The market price?

Hang on. Checking the encyclopedia.

"Market, a means by which the exchange of goods and services takes place as a result of buyers and sellers being in contact with one another, either directly or through mediating agents or institutions."

"Buyers and sellers".

That's right. Buyers and sellers make a market. A buyer forcing a person to sell is not called a market esteemed cabinet ministers.

It is called a "mafia".

When I voted you in I expected you to protect me from the goons of the land mafia who threatened the lives of me and mine. Not don the mantle yourself.

But, since you've decided otherwise, here's an idea. Remember your brilliant "Swachh Bharat" campaign?

How about a rerun?

To silence all those critics claiming your walking around streets with brooms was mere tokenism, lead by example again. This time, for your noble Make in India cause, why don't you pitch state properties inLutyen's Delhi?

Imagine. An industrial corridor from North and South Block, around the India Gate. Infrastructure and social infrastructure projects in Chanakyapuri. Affordable housing on Race Course Road.

It will be a PPP in the truest sense of the term.

Another thing you've thrown out of the window with your ordinance is Social Impact Assessments of the acquisitions you will undertake.

But, for the sake of the infinite possibilities of this idea, let's do a final one. A comparative analysis.

See, relocating and rehabilitating me will be so much of work. I will have to find new employment and trade, new ways of working and living. My family will have to get used to new people and surroundings. Whatever multiple of my land's market price you offer me, it may not suffice.

But you're the central government. Even if you relocate to, say, the outskirts of Manesar, everyone will simply readjust.

What?

I'm "attacking national pride"?

And dragging me off my land has no bearing whatsoever on that I suppose…

I see.

You know, I'm really beginning to not like you.

Very well. Here's another idea. I'm a small land owner. What does my land have to offer your big projects compared to those who own much larger tracts. Why don't we demand land from those who've been sitting on "infrastructure projects" for years and give them to others? Those sick companies you run with their vast acres?

No?

Wait a minute.

Is there a fraction of a chance that you're actually differentiating between big and small land owners?

Okay.

You see, I did vote for your grand promises, but there's something you forget. When I voted for you saying you'll generate employment and improve my economy, some of my rights were already secure. I took it for granted that when you said you'd make things much better, it would not be by making other things worse.

Because, you know, I don't invest in the stock market. So the fact that the Sensex gained 82 points in early trade the day after you made this announcement makes no difference to me as such.

However, when I glance at what drove this rise, I see some things:

Hindustan Construction Company (up 1.23 per cent)

NCC (up 4.17 per cent),

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (up 5.39 per cent),

Interesting.

Respected union cabinet members, it's not that I don't appreciate the spirit with which you're competing with China's "Make in China" campaign, but here's another small reminder.

They don't elect their government. We do. I do. And many more small landowners like me. We may not have much money left over, despite your generous compensation, to contribute to party funds after we've been displaced. But in the places you shunt us off to, the first thing we procure will not be a piece of land. It will be a voter's card.

Happy 2015. See you in 2019.

Yours proudly,

A landowner who's already Making in India.