When land grab becomes a way of life
25 Oct 2012 10:31 PM GMT
Land really is the best art. Andy Warhol, American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art, may have said this in a different context. But India’s present generation of politicians has become unrivalled practitioners of the art. The more skilled among them holding reins of power use their skill to grab land for helping their favourites to build business empires or for filling their own coffers. Their usual modus operandi is to acquire farmers land ‘for public purposes’ and then release the acquisitioned land to builders.
There is another category of influential politicians who after buying the relatively cheaper land located away from the urban habitations, get it exchanged with valuable and centrally located panchayat or shamlat deh (village common land) and get it ‘land use changed’ making it lucrative.
Then there is also the category of politicians holding high positions in government or political parties who grab farmers ‘barren’ or government lands arguing that they are working as a ‘social enterprise for the benefit of farmers’. It may just be coincidental that their ‘social enterprise’ helps them raise their own business empires.
Such land usurpers abound in every state and almost in every party, especially Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If one goes by the spate of latest controversies, Haryana and Maharashtra have become their favourite areas of operations. Among the states which had earlier been hit by such controversies include the BJP-ruled Karnataka. Its chief minister Yeddyurappa was charged with allotting valuable lands to his own family members. He had to quit. Probed by the CBI, the case is now pending in the court.
What has turned focus of the land grab controversy on Haryana and Maharashtra are the cases of Robert Vadra-DLF land deal in Haryana and transfer of farmers and government land needed for public purposes like building of dam to the BJP President Nitin Gadkari in Maharashtra.
For quite some years, land grabbing scams during Haryana’s successive governments involving even some of the state’s top leaders have been hitting the media headlines. Although other areas of national capital region falling in Haryana have also been marred by the land grabbing controversies, it is the Gurgaon belt, which has been the main targets of land scamsters. Due to its proximity to the national capital, Gurgaon has become the state’s industrial hub inviting huge foreign direct investment.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has in a number of cases over the period indicted the state government for acquiring farmers lands for ‘public purposes’ at lower than the market rates but later releasing them to builders.
In its two recent orders, the High Court passed strictures against the government. In one order, it minced no words to say that the Haryana Government discriminated by going ahead with the acquisition of land owned by poor farmers while exempting ‘huge chunks of land owned by builders’ in Sirsa. The Division Bench quashed the acquisition proceedings.
In the second case, the High Court on 26 September ordered a CBI probe into the alleged grabbing of ‘hundreds of acres’ of panchayat land in Panipat district by a mafia ‘protected by influential persons. Even the Haryana chief minister’s flying squad was feeling helpless in investigating the matter’.
Not to speak of Gurgaon, the unscrupulous among the state’s successive ruling leaders have been using their powers to amass huge immovable assets in different parts of Haryana. The INLD’s former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and his two sons, Ajay and Abhay Chautala, are already facing CBI-probed court cases for amassing disproportionate assets, mainly immovable properties.
The Hooda government’s dismissed Home Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda also raised his vast business empire through land deals during the Chautala and the Hooda regimes. Kanda is in jail on charges of abetting suicide of Geetika Sharma, air hostess of his now defunct airline.
The land grabbing controversies highlight the issue about the role of politicians who become businessmen and the businessmen who become politicians. Normally, nobody can and should have any objection against politicians or their relatives doing business. But when the politicians who are in power or hold high offices in ruling parties venture into business, they are tempted to use their influence and power to promote their business. This usually turns into scams. Nobody could have any objection against Robert Vadra’s having a business deal with DLF. It has become controversial mainly for two reasons. One, though Vadra’s is not a politician, he is the son-in-law of the ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Two, his deal with DLF is for the land located in Haryana whose Hooda-led Congress government, according to the raging controversy, played a role in the deal in order to benefit Vadra.
Gadkari’s case falls into the category of politicians holding high offices in political parties and venturing into business. Businessmen are usually prone to violate rules and laws in order to promote their businesses. Evasion of taxes even through benami companies is also one of their favourite modes of making money. So, it did not come as a surprise when the charge of grabbing farmers or government land was leveled against him.
The land grabbing controversies will have implications for the Hooda government and also for Nitin Gadkari. With Haryana Assembly elections only two years away, the controversies are likely to caste their shadow on the electoral prospects of the ruling Congress.
Being president of the BJP, Gadkari’s also becoming a businessman and being involved in land grabbing charge is going to haunt his political career despite his party having come to his rescue describing the charges against him as ‘baseless, frivolous and motivated’. These are the arguments politicians usually advance to hide their wrong doings.
Unless there are systemic changes in governance, land-grabbing sprees will continue. And farmers will be the main losers. [IPA]
There is another category of influential politicians who after buying the relatively cheaper land located away from the urban habitations, get it exchanged with valuable and centrally located panchayat or shamlat deh (village common land) and get it ‘land use changed’ making it lucrative.
Then there is also the category of politicians holding high positions in government or political parties who grab farmers ‘barren’ or government lands arguing that they are working as a ‘social enterprise for the benefit of farmers’. It may just be coincidental that their ‘social enterprise’ helps them raise their own business empires.
Such land usurpers abound in every state and almost in every party, especially Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If one goes by the spate of latest controversies, Haryana and Maharashtra have become their favourite areas of operations. Among the states which had earlier been hit by such controversies include the BJP-ruled Karnataka. Its chief minister Yeddyurappa was charged with allotting valuable lands to his own family members. He had to quit. Probed by the CBI, the case is now pending in the court.
What has turned focus of the land grab controversy on Haryana and Maharashtra are the cases of Robert Vadra-DLF land deal in Haryana and transfer of farmers and government land needed for public purposes like building of dam to the BJP President Nitin Gadkari in Maharashtra.
For quite some years, land grabbing scams during Haryana’s successive governments involving even some of the state’s top leaders have been hitting the media headlines. Although other areas of national capital region falling in Haryana have also been marred by the land grabbing controversies, it is the Gurgaon belt, which has been the main targets of land scamsters. Due to its proximity to the national capital, Gurgaon has become the state’s industrial hub inviting huge foreign direct investment.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has in a number of cases over the period indicted the state government for acquiring farmers lands for ‘public purposes’ at lower than the market rates but later releasing them to builders.
In its two recent orders, the High Court passed strictures against the government. In one order, it minced no words to say that the Haryana Government discriminated by going ahead with the acquisition of land owned by poor farmers while exempting ‘huge chunks of land owned by builders’ in Sirsa. The Division Bench quashed the acquisition proceedings.
In the second case, the High Court on 26 September ordered a CBI probe into the alleged grabbing of ‘hundreds of acres’ of panchayat land in Panipat district by a mafia ‘protected by influential persons. Even the Haryana chief minister’s flying squad was feeling helpless in investigating the matter’.
Not to speak of Gurgaon, the unscrupulous among the state’s successive ruling leaders have been using their powers to amass huge immovable assets in different parts of Haryana. The INLD’s former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and his two sons, Ajay and Abhay Chautala, are already facing CBI-probed court cases for amassing disproportionate assets, mainly immovable properties.
The Hooda government’s dismissed Home Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda also raised his vast business empire through land deals during the Chautala and the Hooda regimes. Kanda is in jail on charges of abetting suicide of Geetika Sharma, air hostess of his now defunct airline.
The land grabbing controversies highlight the issue about the role of politicians who become businessmen and the businessmen who become politicians. Normally, nobody can and should have any objection against politicians or their relatives doing business. But when the politicians who are in power or hold high offices in ruling parties venture into business, they are tempted to use their influence and power to promote their business. This usually turns into scams. Nobody could have any objection against Robert Vadra’s having a business deal with DLF. It has become controversial mainly for two reasons. One, though Vadra’s is not a politician, he is the son-in-law of the ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Two, his deal with DLF is for the land located in Haryana whose Hooda-led Congress government, according to the raging controversy, played a role in the deal in order to benefit Vadra.
Gadkari’s case falls into the category of politicians holding high offices in political parties and venturing into business. Businessmen are usually prone to violate rules and laws in order to promote their businesses. Evasion of taxes even through benami companies is also one of their favourite modes of making money. So, it did not come as a surprise when the charge of grabbing farmers or government land was leveled against him.
The land grabbing controversies will have implications for the Hooda government and also for Nitin Gadkari. With Haryana Assembly elections only two years away, the controversies are likely to caste their shadow on the electoral prospects of the ruling Congress.
Being president of the BJP, Gadkari’s also becoming a businessman and being involved in land grabbing charge is going to haunt his political career despite his party having come to his rescue describing the charges against him as ‘baseless, frivolous and motivated’. These are the arguments politicians usually advance to hide their wrong doings.
Unless there are systemic changes in governance, land-grabbing sprees will continue. And farmers will be the main losers. [IPA]
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