With the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs having given its approval to re-promulgate the Land Ordinance, the Ordinance that will be sent to the President will contain the nine amendments that the government had moved in the Lok Sabha. These changes however did not include the social impact provisions nor the consent clause, key elements of the 2013 Act, passed by the Congress-led UPA government. Even though Union Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh recently said publicly that the government could consider a diluted consent clause, reducing 80 per cent to 50 per cent, there is as yet no confirmation on this.
The Modi government, official sources told The Hindu, had carefully assessed the objections made to its version of the Land Bill both by the opposition as well as RSS-affiliates and its impact on the ground before deciding that it would not retreat on the issue. “There is no negative momentum on the ground,” these sources said, stressing, “once land starts getting acquired and industrial activity takes off, there will be economic by-products that the government will clinch things in favour of the country – and the BJP.”
If in the next session, the Bill is approved by the LS, but is rejected by the RS, the government may then think of calling a joint sitting where it will be able to mobilise the numbers to clear the Bill.
Meanwhile, in her letter, Ms. Gandhi rejected Mr. Gadkari’s offer of an open debate on the land bill, alleging that that it was a mockery of the consensus-building exercise by a “myopic” Modi government that was “bending backwards” to favour the industrialists.
