Opinion Out of my mind: A house of illusions

Every country which is rich today was once poor and agrarian. It got rich by using land for industry.

Meghnad Desai

March 1, 2015 12:08 AM IST First published on: Mar 1, 2015 at 12:08 AM IST

It would be easy for the BJP/NDA government to concede and go back to the old Act.

The Budget can take care of itself. What about the nation? We all expected a radical transformation of the country given the promises and the possibilities the election victory of the BJP conjured up. But radical is a two-faced word. It means root and branch change. But what sort of change? Are we going forward to take control of our destiny in the 21st century and aiming to be one of two or three most powerful and prosperous countries? Or are we still battling between a vision of an India which will hark back to the glorious days of Congress Socialism, with low growth, ameliorating but not eradicating poverty, suspecting all private business and creating ever more white elephants of the public sector?

All sorts of illusions have been on display in and out of Parliament. The Land question has paralysed proceedings. The previous government had passed a Land Acquisition Bill which imagined an India of poor starving farmers about to be deprived by rapacious Big Business. Hence land acquisition for any purpose was made expensive, time consuming and virtually impossible.

They knew they were not coming back so this was a scorched earth policy. Of course the BJP supported the Bill. This is because the most powerful illusion in Indian politics is that farmers are poor. They should go on cultivating their land at any cost to them and to the economy. As Rahul Gandhi (remember him?) promised the tribals of Orissa to preserve them in their abject poverty, the UPA land Bill was meant to stop all non-agricultural development which required land. The nation had to stay poor to keep Socialism alive.

Farmers are not poor as a group. There are poor farmers and in the Vidarbha region, there have been farmer suicides which have been investigated. But the majority of farmers i.e. land-owning cultivators are not poor. Just look at the ones in Jantar Mantar with their fancy head dresses.

These are landlords, not kisans. There is no income tax on income from agriculture, the only business to enjoy that privilege. There are poor sharecroppers and landless labourers. But they are not affected by this Bill. They would be better off if a factory was built on the land which affords them a lousy wage at present. They would get round-the-year employment. But the Opposition wants to protect the landed gentry pretending they are poor and hence we have the spectacle of Parliament and Anna Hazare defending the untaxed .

Politics is built on rhetoric. No BJP politician can say that farmers are not poor. Yet the state of agriculture is such that while land-owning cultivators are well off there is a lot of poverty in the rural areas. The reason for this is not far to seek. The productivity per worker in agriculture is one-tenth of that in manufacturing or services. India will prosper if it takes people off the land and gives them better jobs elsewhere. That, of course, requires land. Prevent the transfer of land and the poor will stay poor .

It would be easy for the BJP/NDA government to concede and go back to the old Act. Moderation is popular. But then the radical transformation of the economy will have to be put off for another generation. The essence of governing is to be able to make tough choices, face unpopularity in the short run to win lasting success. Give up at this early stage and you never regain initiative.

The PM needs to say that the country needs rapid economic growth, more and smarter urbanisation, secure and sustainable jobs, efficient infrastructure, decent housing with adequate sanitary facilities, education which gives children the skills of literacy and numeracy, and makes them cyber savvy in private or public schools .

He has to say that profits accrue from efficient delivery of goods or services and only by having many profitable businesses in agriculture, industry and services will we remove poverty.

Every country which is rich today was once poor and agrarian. It got rich by using land for industry.

The poor move from land to workshops and factories to get out of poverty. There is no other way.