BJP’s dilemma

Other than the Union and railway budgets the urgency to pass the Bill to replace the ordinance on land acquisition may dominate the just-started Parliament session. Brought down from the high pedestal by a humiliating Delhi poll verdict and aware that it lacks majority in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has begun with a conciliatory note. Prime Minister Modi has talked of working together with the Opposition and even attended a family function of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad. For the first time, the party has reached out to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. 

The message that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu seems to have got from Mrs Gandhi is not of cooperation, especially on the issue of changes being made in the land acquisition law. The utterances of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, point to a hardened Congress stand on the land ordinance. The BJP faces a dilemma: whether to get all the six Bills cleared through a joint session of both Houses of Parliament in keeping with its image of providing a strong government, or yield to Opposition pressure and appear weak before its supporters in industry. The BJP’s past role as a disruptive Opposition may weaken its efforts for cooperation. After a U-turn on the Swaminathan report the party annoying farmers would further hurt itself politically. Its ally, Akali Dal, would not like to be seen supporting a Bill that hits its vote bank. There is also pressure from the RSS, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and social activist Anna Hazare.  

Given the political cost involved, the BJP may choose to eat humble pie and revisit the clauses concerning social impact assessment and consent. Any dilution of the ordinance, however, would send a wrong signal to industry, which has come to believe that the Modi government is all powerful and can take hard decisions, unlike the previous Manmohan Singh regime. If today it is a compromise on the land issue, tomorrow it could be on labour laws. Problems arise because narrow political interest guides decisions, not good of the nation.