By persuasion alone

In the city of a thousand flyovers there once lived a shrewd and miserly merchant. He had a roaring business of gems and precious stones and...

In the city of a thousand flyovers there once lived a shrewd and miserly merchant. He had a roaring business of gems and precious stones and had a shop in the best location in the market. Enough wealth had been accumulated for seven generations of the family. However, he was not happy as he coveted the neighbour’s shop. As the market was in the most popular part of the town, the shop was very expensive and would have cost at least a thousand dinars. The neighbour fed his large family from the earnings of the shop and may not have agreed to sell it or demanded more money than the market price.

However, the merchant was a wily one. At the crack of a winter dawn, the neighbour sleeping in his quarters behind the shop woke up to loud sounds of crashing as the king’s soldiers barged in and threw him out of the premises. All his entreaties fell on deaf ears as the accompanying khadim threw a few dinars, flashed a paper and said: “Your neighbour, the merchant, has signed an MOU with the king and your premises are being acquired to be handed over to him”.

Individuals have a right to houses, land, property. However, since Independence, land has been acquired by the government for projects like dams and steel mines because the development of the nation was held to be a higher public purpose than the private interest of an individual. The rationale of acquisition was not for the government to make a profit but to develop infrastructure for the greater public good.

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Times changed. Today, it is a matter of demand and supply. If a neighbour wants the shop, he has to make an offer the shop-owner cannot refuse. The route of the sovereign power of the king is a relic of a bygone era. If someone has something that you want, make an offer, negotiate and you can acquire it only if both sides reach an agreement. Unless the deal is cut between the parties, it doesn’t work. Those are the rules of the market.

If companies like Tata or Posco want land to mine for their raw material, they must make offers to the individuals who live on those lands. It is the responsibility of the person who wants a thing to convince the other side. Cajole, persuade, offer deals sweet enough for the persons to agree. Use of force has no place in the market. To send armed people and throw out the neighbour whose shop you want is a criminal act. To do so using the device of the exercise of the sovereign power of government does not take away from the criminality of using lathis, tear-gas shells, firings to take away land from those have a right over it.

The writer is a Supreme Court lawyer