Sadly,Professor D.C. Wadhwa,who put an end to the unconstitutional practice of re-promulgation of Ordinances,passed away at 8 pm on July 18. Professor Wadhwa was a regular contributor to The Indian Express; all of his work was in one way or the other,inspired by his faith in the Constitution of India. The only religion that he believed in,all his life,was logic: he always used to say to me that if you stick to your logic,nobody can turn you down.
Professor Wadhwa was a student of both law and economics. He was the first Indian to write extensively about agrarian legislation ; Agrarian Legislation in India (1793-1966) took him 10 years,making him the authority on land legislation in India.
He was the first person to highlight the inevitable need to introduce the system of conclusive title to land in India,through his monograph,in 1989,entitled Guaranteeing Title to Land: A Preliminary Study. This monograph was his report to the Planning Commission,after they appointed him to study the status of records-of-rights in land in India. He always believed that if this system is ever implemented,then not only would it solve the problems related to land transactions and land acquisitions,but it will also help to deal with poverty and even elements like naxalism. In fact,according to him,all land litigation and encroachment is because the government does not guarantee title to land in India.
For more than 20 years,till he reached his deathbed,he kept on knocking at various influential doors to get the system of conclusive title in place. Out of his agitation over government failure,he started to write a book in which he discussed his long struggle,as a last effort to inspire someone to take this task ahead.
Finally,Professor Wadhwa devoted all his life to just one institute,the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune,serving eventually as its director. He always ensured that all his work benefited the institute,and hence never took the work offered to him by private organisations,regardless of how lucrative.
It is very rare to find a man who so strongly craves nothing but perfection and who believes in nothing but logic.
The writer,a former research assistant to D.C. Wadhwa,is at the Gokhale Institute in Pune
