The Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab has embroiled itself in the cesspool of ‘land pooling policy’, which was stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday. The policy is facing strong resistance from the farmers, who are being supported by all the Opposition parties. The way the farmers’ resistance is gathering momentum against the policy, reminds of the anti-farm law agitation along the Delhi border in 2020-21, which eventually led to the Central government withdrawing those laws. So much so, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal himself and even apologised to the farmers. History seems to be repeating itself in Punjab now.
When everything seemed to be going reasonably well for the ruling AAP in Punjab, it started with a policy that it should have visualised would face strong resistance. Farmers in Punjab resist giving away their land even after getting sufficient compensation, expecting them to part with their land without their consent and compensation is certainly too much.
According to the ‘land pooling policy’, farmers will not be provided any compensation for their land acquired by the government. They will be given back one-fourth of the land, while three-fourth will remain with the government, which will set up urban areas and business centres on the same.
Suppose a particular farmer’s one-acre land is taken by the government, he will get only 1,000 square yards in return for residential purposes and one plot of 200 square yards for commercial purposes. That is it. There will be no compensation for the three-fourth land that the government will take over. Besides, farmers’ consent will not be taken.
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Farmers and the Opposition parties are maintaining that the ‘Land Pooling Policy’ is in violation of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 passed by the Congress-led UPA government in 2013 when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. The Act provides for the consent by 80 per cent of the population whose land is to be acquired and financial compensation double the market price in urban areas and four times the market price in the rural areas. Here in this case, the government has neither sought any consent from the farmers/ landowners, nor offered any compensation to them.
Although the BJP-led NDA government had tried to saturate the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act as it found it (the Act) to be a hindrance to various development projects, due to strong resistance by the Congress, it had to drop the changes it proposed to make that would have saturated its pro-farmer provisions. It was in this context that the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had met Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence to seek her party’s support, which she declined. When Rahul Gandhi recently claimed that he was threatened by Jaitely for his support to the farm laws, he actually confused the two issues. Jaitley died in 2019 while farm laws were passed in 2020.
Not only has the ‘land pooling policy’ united the opposition, it has created unrest and unease among the AAP cadres in the rural belts. Several grassroots level workers have even quit the party. Some villagers have raised boards and banners, banning the entry of the AAP leaders. This is something similar to the villagers boycotting and banning the BJP during the anti-farm law agitation. Interestingly, the BJP this time has joined ranks with the farmers and is supporting their demand for withdrawal of the land pooling policy.
The policy has particularly provided the much-needed breather to the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Sukhbir Singh Badal. The Akali Dal had been pushed to the margins during the last several years. Most of its vote bank had switched over to the AAP. With the narrative building up against the land pooling policy, the Akali Dal has got active. The party’s meetings are attracting good crowds in the rural areas, which should be a cause of concern for the ruling party.
The AAP leadership is understood to have envisaged the policy to acquire the land and take loans against it to finance some of its promised schemes like Rs 1,000 to be paid to every woman in the state. It was one of the main poll promises of the party in 2022 and the party’s victory is mainly attributed to this promise. The AAP volunteers had filled up forms of lakhs of women across the state promising them Rs 1,000 every month. The party is already in the fourth year of its tenure and it is yet to fulfil this promise. Not only has been the Opposition cornering the party on the issue, the women who were promised it have also been feeling disillusioned.
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With the state debt having already crossed Rs 4 lakh crore, the AAP does not have any resources to fulfil this promise. Raising loans is the only option. And for that, the party toyed with the idea of acquiring land, in the name of land pooling, and then seeking loans against the land. This is practically very difficult, as strong resistance shown by the farmers has proved. Whether the party will be able to fulfil the Rs 1,000 promise to women across the state or not, it definitely has already alienated a strong section of its supporters who voted for the party en bloc in 2022.
The stay on the policy by the high court must have come as a breather for the ruling AAP as well. The court’s intervention can be a face saving for the government. It will not need to withdraw the policy and at the same time will not need to implement it as long as it remains 'stayed' by the court. Since there is growing clamour for its withdrawal, including from its own cadres, the AAP may prefer that the policy remains 'stayed'. The party still has about one-and-a-half years to stabilise itself and neutralise the negative sentiment that the policy has generated.
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