Compensation to farmers for land acquired for non-farm purposes has once again come to the fore, now in Uttar Pradesh on the Noida-Agra expressway. Investors who have already sunk funds into both the road project and subsidiary projects are nervously awaiting the outcome of the stand-off between the state government and farmers, and opposition political parties, including the Congress party, are farming in troubled fields, so to speak! The violent events in Singur and Lalgarh, both in the reputedly farmer-friendly state of West Bengal, have raised the awareness of farmers in the entire country. The landowners in Singur stopped the transfer of land through violent protests. In Lalgarh, the protests stopped the acquisition. After the agitations and the so-called victory for the farmers, Singur farmers were left with no land and Lalgarh farmers were monetarily no better off. On the other hand, the farmers opposing the acquisition of their land for the Noida-Agra expressway have clearly stated that they may give up their land if they are paid a higher compensation. It is, therefore, possible to visualise a resolution of this impasse if the state agrees to increase the amount of compensation.
The agitating farmers want the same compensation as has been offered to some other farmers in the state. Political parties of all hues have promised to take up the farmers’ cause and get them the compensation they want. Should they succeed, it will certainly be bad for the current government. Either it will mean an irreparable loss to the government exchequer, or it will convince every farmer that the state does not give the true price to its farmers for the land it acquires from them. In other words, the outcome will only increase the distrust that rural India has for the government. Indeed, some of the parties have hinted that the state is making money out of this acquisition by handing over parcels of land at many times the acquisition price to private developers to build the townships that are being planned along the expressway. Since developers are willing to pay those prices, it must be that the market value of the land is higher than what the farmers are getting; unless, of course, the state is collecting the money to develop the infrastructure that will increase the value of the land. The problem is that the land acquisition process is always shrouded in mystery. No government explains why that land and no other land is being acquired, what is the distribution of ownership of land by politicians and their kin in the transferred land, what is the cost of developing the land and what are the calculations of the net benefit to the state from the acquisition.
All of this would not have been a problem in a country where the rule of law prevails. Unfortunately, successive governments have constantly chipped away at the land rights of citizens. Worse still, generations of intellectuals have supported this. This obviously means that the only way farmers can get what they want is through violent protests in which some of them may get killed. Be it in West Bengal or in UP, be it with a Left government or a casteist one. There is amazing similarity how governments behave when they are given unconditional powers over citizens.