She may not look like your quintessentially quarrelsome poÂlitician, but Sumitra Mahajan may just have killed a few more investments planned to set foot into India. As Chairperson of Parliamentary Standing ComÂmittee on Rural DevelopÂment, Mahajan may have a tough job convincing people—especially industries—how a contentious recommendation will pan out in the plans of infrastructure growth and investments.
The most criticised of her committee's recommendations is that the government should have little or no role in land acquisition when it involved private participation, including public-private participation (PPP) projects.
As a representative of the Opposition, Mahajan may have her own political axe to grind. But the fact that her committee comprised, among other eminent people, Mani Shankar Aiyar, means that the left-of-centre thinker may have had a significant role to play in this recommendation.
As the industry has been calling for an expansion in the definition of “public purpose” as described for land acquisition, Mahajan's committee clips the scope of public purpose and makes some socialistic points. For example, it would take away acquisition of any agricultural land. While the thought is noble, this would mean that farmland values would not rise as much as other land.
The BJP has been defending the committee's recommendations, and this politicisation of land acquisition may prove to be damaging to the concept. On the other hand, if no farmland is available for public-purpose acquisition, there could be more heated debate arising from desperation among locals to sell their land.
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