It is all about land.

As the Congress realised that it would lose power in last year's general elections it resorted to a scorched earth policy to make it impossible for any succeeding government to govern India. It postponed tax refunds and payments for various subsidies, increased NREGA payments more than the rate of inflation and announced a Seventh Pay Commission. But the most damaging piece of legislation was the Land Acquisition Act which has made it impossible to acquire land for infrastructure or industry. Just as the NREGA set a floor under rural wages and led to an uncontrolled rise in the price of food so the Land Act has raised the price of land to prohibitive levels. The irony was that the BJP voted for all these pernicious pieces of legislation for fear of being labeled as anti-poor. Now in government the BJP is desperate to stimulate economic growth, but for that we need infrastructure and infrastructure needs land. So the BJP passed an Ordinance to make it possible to acquire land for 5 categories, including defence, infrastructure and industrial corridors. However, the government has to pass a bill in parliament to turn the Ordinance into law, which the opposition is determined to block. Yet only last year Congress governments in various states were demanding exactly the same changes but now that the Congress has lost some of these states and is in danger of losing others it is determined to block this legislation in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP is in a minority. We know what the Congress is about but even the so called allies of the BJP are agitating against the bill. Why? Not because their hearts are bleeding for the poor farmer but because they do not want the economy to grow strongly because that may increase the popularity of the BJP and reduce their own votes. If you cannot win seats you cannot loot, the country can go to hell. The new Chief Minister of Delhi is also vehemently against any changes to the Land Act. Problem is that he has promised to build 200 new schools and 20 colleges. We are not talking of a few square feet of land but many acres. Perhaps, he will construct a 220 floor building, with a school or college on each floor. The Chief Minister has banned all demolitions of illegal structures in the city. He has promised to ' regularise ' unauthorised colonies, which means registering illegal buildings on public land. The excuse is that it helps the poor but it actually helps the land mafia. So how to handle these cynical opportunists? The government could call for a joint session of parliament and get all the bills passed in one go or, better still, puncture the bubble in land prices. That will result in cheaper land and get rid of black money.