By Subrata Majumder
After minimum government, maximum governance, Mr Narendra Modi’s new mantra for development is India can develop only if states develop. Mr Modi set this new tone of challenge of development after reiterating his wishes to work in close partnership with state government, when chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Orissa extended their support to him. Even before he became Prime Minister, in a TV interview, he decimated the much aired belief of adopting Gujarat model at the Centre. He said sarcastically to the interviewer that “you cannot grow date-palm in Chennai”
Mr Modi believes that empowerment of states is embedded for the development. Without state’s active participation, development of the country is not plausible. To accomplish this, BJP led Modi should have not only a larger political control over the states, but also should find new ways to leverage State powers in the reforms for the development. At present, BJP has six states under its political clout. By 2015, seven states will undergo fresh assembly elections. They are Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, J&K, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar. The prospects of the election in these states depend on two pillars, viz, Modi wave and anti-incumbency factor.
Even though it is believed that Modi wave may fade with the months passing by since it will be uphill task for Mr Modi to fulfill the commitment made to the electorates and meet their high expectation within two years, Modi charisma will play a pivotal role in the state elections. Given the Congress plunged into shattered political image in 2014 election, which will have far-reaching impact on the assembly elections in these states, the election will polarize between BJP and local parties. Among the seven states which will face assembly elections by 2015, currently four states are under Congress governance, two are under local parties with the support of Congress and one (Delhi) is under President rule. All these sates will not only receive backlash of Congress debacle in2014 election, but also will face anti-incumbency in the assembly elections. Election in these states almost guarantee the victory of BJP. This is because BJP made a landslide victory in 2014 Lok Sabha election from these states. Given this assumption of high probability of victory, BJP will have 13 states under its clout out f 21 major states in the country by 2015.
This will have major implications in the power polarization in the country. If Mr Modi controls half of major states in the country, his arm will be stronger to broach his mantra of development in half of the country. Mr Modi’s foremost tasks for development are increase in investment and jack up employment opportunities. In manifesto, BJP was assertive in making India a manufacturing hub in the world and creating a pool of new 250 million jobs over 10 years. To do this, it plans to encourage fresh investment and clear pending projects.
Investment will gush if land acquisition hazards are minimized and environment clearances are speeded up. The new Land Acquisition Act 2013 made it more cumbersome and unviable for the investors. The new law has made it mandatory that land acquisition in rural areas should fetch four times more than normal value and two times more in urban areas. In addition, rehabilitation and resettlement of the farmers are other obligations of the buyers under the new law. These hard regulations deter investors and delay a number of major investment projects like power and major manufacturing projects.
One pragmatic suggestion was made by Professor of Columbia University, Arvind Panagarya to ease and speed up land acquisitions. He believes that this will have far-reaching implication on development. Land is listed in Concurrent list. He recommended two alternatives to ease the complexities of land acquisition. First, the Constitution should empower the President to confer special right to states to amend the Central law on Concurrent subjects for applications in their respective states. Then, President assent will be an executive decision and does not require legislative action. Second, a special power should be conferred to State by amending the Constitution to reform the law on Concurrent subjects for their respective states. Constitution empowers Central and States to make laws on the subjects in Concurrent List. However, in the event of conflict Centre has the power to nullify the State power. But, there is nothing in the Constitution that prevents Centre in transferring this power to State. He recommended that an amendment should be made by inserting a clause that if a State amended the law, the amended legislation should be applicable within jurisdiction area of State only.
If so, it will empower the States to unravel the complexity of new land acquisition law and ease it to benefit investors. This will pep up those states who are interested in bringing more investment in their states and bolster the development. It will also intensify competition between BJP and non-BJP ruled states and will act as magnet for non-BJP states to fall prey to reforms in land acquisition. This will help in facilitating more federal powers to states for development.
Therefore, Mr Modi’s new mantra for working in close partnership with states will be a paradigm shift in decentralization of power for development. This will create a new task for Planning Commission and drive them to reinvent the five year planning on a true federal system of governance for development. (IPA Service)