The Modi government is now resigned to the fact that it will not be able to pass the controversial Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill before March 20, as virtually the entire Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority, is determined to block it.
This is despite the nine fresh amendments introduced when the Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha earlier this week.
The government, senior ministerial sources told The Hindu , is, however, determined that it will not dilute the Bill any further.
Its contention is that the Opposition’s demand that the Bill should bring back the consent clause is untenable, as it has proved to be a major hindrance in land acquisition. It also does not want to include a provision that if a project is not completed within five years, the land should revert to its original owners.Therefore, the government has decided that in the coming weeks — and perhaps months — all Ministers and MPs should work to change the public perception that the BJP-led government’s version of the Land Bill is pro-corporate.
A Minister said: “Somehow, an impression has been created that our Bill is anti-farmer, pro-corporate: we need to correct that. The 2013 Act made it impossible to acquire land — so it was actually anti-development, but people don’t see it that way.”
The nine amendments that the governments had introduced, he added, were also pushed by the RSS affiliates.
On Friday morning, Parliamentary Affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu called an informal meeting of his ministerial colleagues to impress on them that they collectively needed to change the people’s perception of the Land Bill in their constituencies.
The government, sources in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry indicated, had more or less decided that the Lok Sabha would be prorogued after it closes on March 20 for the break to allow for the re-promulgation of the Land Ordinance.
Simultaneously, stepping up their campaign against the Land Bill, Opposition MPs have planned to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday to protest against the amendments proposed to be carried out in the 2013 Act. Eight parties — the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the DMK, the Janata Dal (U), the CPI (M), the CPI and the Kerala Congress (M) — have so far confirmed their participation in the protest march, sources said.
