Grounds for hope

THE JANSATYAGRAHA 2012 STARTS from Gwalior on October 3, joined by thousands of landless farmers and tribal people.-A.M. FARUQUI

After the year-long Jansamvad Yatra and Jansatyagraha, the Ekta Parishad has a written commitment from the Rural Development Ministry to advance land reforms.

Celebration and caution. These sentiments dominated the deliberations of senior activists of the Ekta Parishad as they gathered at Delhis Gandhi Peace Foundation office on October 18, one week after the organisation and the Union government had signed a 10-point agreement to advance land reforms. The agreement had come about after a year-long Jansamvad Yatra and Jansatyagraha highlighting issues relating to land reforms particularly the plight of the landless, and the governments policies that have accentuated the plunder of agricultural and forest lands by corporate interests. The yatra had begun from Kanyakumari on October 2 last year, travelled across the length and breadth of the country, and turned into a foot march of over 50,000 people in Gwalior on October 2 this year.

The march was expected to culminate in Delhi, but as it progressed from Gwalior, several rounds of discussions took place between Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and the leadership of the Ekta Parishad, including its president, P.V. Rajagopal, leading to the agreement, which was signed in Agra. The fact that the organisation was able to elicit an unprecedented written commitment from the government on fulfilling the promise to complete the land reform process was cause enough for celebration: At the October 18 meeting, several senior activists were greeted with flowers and music.

But as the deliberations progressed into the evening, the need for caution was emphasised by several senior activists. We realise that the struggle for land reforms taken up by the organisation has become even more taxing in the context of the agreement with the Union government, Rajagopal summed up the mood to Frontline. He went on to explain: Activists of the Ekta Parishad are known for their capacity to take up issues relating to land at the local level in different parts of the country, launch and sustain long struggles for the landless in select areas, and undergo many physical hardships in their campaigns. But now, we have to do all that and, along with it, take part and steer some of the governmental initiatives on this front. Our activists realise that dealing with the bureaucracy will indeed be a daunting task for which we would have to be prepared.

Once bitten

Though Rajagopal did not specifically refer to it, it was clear that the sense of caution among the senior activists was also a product of their organisations experience with the government. Five years ago, the Ekta Parishad had organised a similar march to Delhi with thousands of landless people. Then also the government took notice of the agitation, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had initiated deliberations, leading to the announcement of the formation of the National Land Reforms Council. The council was headed by the Prime Minister and consisted of Chief Ministers, sociologists and activists, but the eminent body has not had a single meeting.

While this experience is bound to instil greater caution among the activists, Rajagopal pointed out to Frontline that the results of the current movement, particularly the October 11 Agra agreement, signified a small step forward compared with earlier government exercises in this regard. The 10 points in the agreement, stated Rajagopal, related to specific areas that needed to be addressed. And for each segment, there is a sort of road map which we hope will be adhered to in earnest, he said.

The agreement stipulates that the Ministry of Rural Development will initiate a dialogue with State governments immediately and put out a draft of this policy for public debate and discussion in the next four to six months. The draft will be finalised soon thereafter. The agreement makes it clear that the draft Land Reforms Policy prepared by the Jansatyagraha, organised by Ekta Parishad, will be an important input in the preparation of this draft and that other civil society organisations will also be actively involved in this exercise. The agreement has authorised the Ministry of Rural Development to proactively initiate a dialogue process with the States to take steps for giving statutory backing to the provision of agricultural land to the landless poor in the backward districts and homestead rights to the landless and shelterless poor in rural areas all over the country. The stated objective of the exercise is to guarantee 10 cents of homestead land to every poor, landless and shelterless rural household. The agreement also contains a proposal to enable the provision of a homestead to the landless as a component of the Indira Awas Yojana.

It also authorised the Ministry of Rural Development to issue detailed advisories in the next two months exhorting the States to focus on effective and time-bound implementation of various laws enacted by legislatures aimed at protecting the land rights of Dalits, Adivasis and other weaker and marginalised sections of society. Details of these advisories are to be worked out in consultation with civil society organisations that are active on this issue. Another point agreed to by the Ministry of Rural Development is to initiate dialogue with States to establish fast-track land tribunals and courts for speedy disposal of the cases pending in revenue and judicial courts. In addition to the Central scheme for legal aid, States too will be exhorted to extend legal aid to socially deprived sections whose lands are involved in litigation, particularly Dalits and tribal communities.

The agreement also stipulates that the Ministry of Rural Development will work along with the Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj to ensure effective implementation of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), which will empower gram sabhas to function more effectively in the implementation of the Act. The agreement further points out that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has issued a comprehensive set of revised rules and directives for the effective implementation of forest rights and that the States will be actively supported in this.

Other points in the agreement involve issuing advisories to the State governments to undertake a thorough survey of forest and revenue boundaries in order to resolve disputes. The gram panchayats and the gram sabhas will be fully involved in the survey and settlement process as well as in the updating of records governing common property resources. A Task Force on Land Reforms was set up as part of the agreement, with the Union Minister for Rural Development as its head.

During its Jansamvad Yatra, the Ekta Parishad circulated a 16-point charter. Most of the points in the charter have been incorporated in the Agra agreement. Unlike the earlier National Land Reforms Council, the Task Force on Land Reforms has already met, even before the October 18 stock-taking of the Ekta Parishad.

A number of senior activists of the organisation believe that there were several reasons that forced the government to act now, after five years of inaction on the agreement reached after the earlier land reforms march.

Ran Singh, a senior leader of the Ekta Parishad, said: To start with, they realised that the failure to live up to the promise five years ago would lead to forceful manifestations of anger from the marchers as they reached Delhi. Clearly, there were apprehensions among the powers that be about a law and order situation in Delhi. There was no way the government could have afforded it in the present social and political context. This context certainly helped Jairam Ramesh to convince his senior colleagues to continue the negotiations with us.

Secondly, the yatra this time had attracted widespread support from civil society organisations and even political parties. As many as 200 civil society organisations joined our consultations and extended support in different parts of the country. Several opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, associated with us at several places. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, joined the yatra at several places and even took part in the final march. It was the overall effect of all these that led to the current step forward.

According to Aneesh Thillenkery, national advocacy coordinator of the Ekta Parishad, the cumulative effect of the support and the resultant agreement have created greater optimism than before among the activists, supporters and beneficiaries of the land reforms movement. The most important thing is to sustain this and take it to concrete and positive results, he said.

Sections of the Congress, including party spokesperson Manish Tewari and Minister Kishore Chandradeo, share this optimism. So do sections of the BJP, particularly party leaders and activists close to Shivraj Singh Chauhan. However, Rajagopal himself is more cautious. The specific steps initiated at this point of time need to ultimately lead to a course correction of the overall neoliberal policy framework. Unless that happens, many of these initiatives would remain half-baked. One mining bill with overriding corporate interests promotion can kill many of these steps, he said.

Rajagopals point on the policy course correction was highlighted with a different political nuance by S. Ramachandran Pillai, president of the All India Kisan Sabha and member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The CPI(M) leader was of the view that the Agra agreement did not signify a reversal of the pro-corporate, pro-rich policy framework of the Congress and other establishment-oriented parties. In the last six decades, only the Left parties and their State governments have advanced genuine land reforms leading to the distribution of land to the tiller. This experience underscores that these measures cannot be advanced without political will. More importantly, land reforms cannot happen just by the exhortations of the Central government. The State governments have to take the initiative and only a consistent peoples movement can make the State governments do this.

Ramachandran Pillais points find agreement in the echelons of the Ekta Parishad, including Rajagopal. But he is of the view that the policy course correction cannot happen overnight and one may have to take a laborious, step-after-step path. I would like to believe that the sustained mass movement of the Ekta Parishad and the sections of the government that initiated the current agreement are doing this, Rajagopal said.

Clearly a case of cautious optimism.