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Today, Maharastra (India’s richest state) repealed an archaic land law, the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCRA), 1976. ULCRA was enacted to decrease the concentration of land holdings in cities. If you owned more than the “permissible” amount of urban land in Maharastra, it could be forcibly taken away from you and redistributed to the “needy.” Compensation for your land was a pittance.
The ostensible purpose of ULCRA was to provide low cost housing in cities. But as we all know, these socialist legislations can have very perverse effects. Instead of an urban socialist utopia where the government was going to build low cost housing with hospitals, roads and other urban amenities we have slums and virtual garbage dumps around our cities. Instead of decreasing land prices we have the third highest land prices in the world in Mumbai. The reasons are simple:
(1) As the government tried to forcibly overtake land in the city, thousands of landlords filed cases in the courts. We all know the speed of the Indian Judicial system. Land that could have been privately developed got locked up in court battles. One could argue that that the fault lies in the Indian Judicial system and if the cases were resolved faster this would not have happened. I have two counterpoints to that:
- Its a reality that the Indian Judicial System is slow and that will not change in a night. Any legislation needs to take ground level realities into account. UCLRA was a foolish act that expected people to just give up their land meekly. We all know that landowners were not going to give up without a good fight and do everything to stop the lands from being taken over.
- Acquisitions sometimes bring up real questions of law and this takes time to work its way through the system. The state has to justify why a certain landowner’s land is “surplus.” UCLRA raises important legal questions: How far can the Indian state forcibly acquire property from its citizens? Why should successful, law abiding citizen who own a lot of land be penalized for their success? Not all wealth is ill gotten or gotten by oppressing the poor. In this whole debate we need to realize that India is democracy with respect for property rights. It is not a communist state.
(2) A whole new bureaucracy sprang up that put its dirty hands in every land deal. Clearances of all kinds were required and “exemptions” an “No objection certificates” (NOC) needed. These bureaucrats essentially became, in the language of economics, rent-seekers.
(3) Land that was successfully acquired under the act was hardly developed because of the general lethargy of government departments. The quality of urban governance is so abysmal in India that one can not even be sure that deserving recipients would get housing in these acquired lands. Many of these lands fell in a legal limbo or were encroached upon by squatters or politicians.
Until a few years ago, almost all Indian states had UCLRA in place. One by one they have repealed it. Today Maharashtra, AP and West Bengal are the three major states where UCLRA is still operative. Andhra Pradesh is a very progressive state and I believe it will be ultimately repealed there too.
Bengal is the only major state where the politicians are ideologically committed to the objectives of the law. And its no surprise because these rent control and land ceiling laws are showcase legislations for the left parties in India. I hope West Bengal climbs down from its fundamentalist viewpoint and repeals these anti-development and corruption inducing legislations. Calcutta and Mumbai, our most majestic cities have become shantytowns partly because of these cancerous laws.
To the left parties who support these laws I would request them to see the real ground level effects of these laws. Lets recognize human nature and motivation and then frame laws. Communism failed because it was a fundamentally flawed ideology. Many people say that communism failed because it was not “implemented properly” or failed due to a western conspiracy. My view is that it failed because it could not be implemented properly. Any system that denied humans fundamental freedoms like the freedom to trade, to choose a profession, to choose how to live, to choose beliefs and concentrated control in an unelected, all powerful bureaucracy was doomed to failure.
“What does it matter if the cat is black or white as long as it kills rats?” is a very famous quote by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Our leftist leaders must realize this and repeal all legislations that have failed in the past decades. Most often these leftist “leaders” have some vested interests (a union to run, a government department to lord over, bribes to collect) so they hold back these reform moves. Whatever the reasons for holding back reform, whether ideology or vested interest, Indian citizens should put pressure on our elected representatives to overturn these archaic legislations that are holding our country back.
Its finally legal to study in an English Medium School in Karnataka!
Every once in a while a news item comes along that brightens up your day. Today was that day.
For sometime now, about 3,000 unaided (don’t get a penny from the government) schools in Karnataka have been facing the threat of closure. Their only crime: having the temerity of using English as the primary medium of instruction. That’s all.
The cultural police of Karnataka decided way back in 1994 that children in primary and secondary schools could only be taught in Kannada and some other Indian languages like Urdu, Hindi, Telugu etc. English was out. This was probably justified on grounds of foreign cultural “invasion”, erosion of values, decline of Indian languages and so on. This wide ranging order affected all the schools that had been teaching English to mostly poor little toddlers. The rich were not affected because they already sent their kids to posh and long established English Medium CBSE/ICSE schools that were outside the direct ambit of the order. Now its not hard to understand why poor Indian parents are desperate that their children learn English and why this was just so bad for all the school children in Karnataka.
The Indian Constitution, on even a cursory reading, gives its citizens linguistic freedom and the right to pursue professions and callings relatively unmolested. So the Karnataka government couldn’t really stop children from studying in English. Especially if the school they went to did not get any funding from the state. This was lost on the minister who managed to pass such a jingoistic order way back in 1994. If you have read Yes, Prime Minister you will realize that this is precisely the kind of initiative that a politician cannot oppose in public. It is like cow slaughter or banning dance bars. How many politicians will be able to comfortably come out in public and say that people who don’t believe that the cow is sacred should be able to eat beef? Or that the ban on dance bars is unfair? Similarly, this was one of those orders that just got notified and stayed on the rule books because no local politician could be seen to oppose it. Elections are fought on 3-4% swings and you’d rather not take a stand and risk irritating the “Sons of Soil” constituency which is quite strong in Karnataka. Given that it was also a simple government order, and not a Bill, there was no room for sabotage in the legislature, during which each politician would have publicly sworn their commitment to Kannada and then just let the bill die an easy death in some backroom (most politicians can be pretty rational people). This brings me to another issue on which I must vent: our parliamentary system is so weak and our executive so strong that we simply keep passing boilerplate legislation through which you can drive a truck by issuing notifications, exemptions, circulars and other such bureaucratic devices cheerfully called “delegated legislation.” The American Congress on the other hand zealously guards its domain and frames laws so specifically that no scheming additional-joint-provisional-whatever-secretary and his evil overlord minister can pass wide ranging policy changes. This way stupid initiatives die a silent death in a parliamentary committee instead of passing out unimpeded through the executive order route (as it probably did in this case).
Thankfully, due to the inherent creakiness of the Indian state and our lack of commitment to real action, the implementation of the Karnataka order has been fitful. Some schools kept teaching English on the sly. Every time a government in Bangalore reached new lows it would resurrect “safe” issues like “Tamils are stealing our water”, “Farmers are in Danger” and in this case “Ban English” from the classroom. They now had the 1994 government order handy to threaten schools with “derecognition” (a term that has acquired a particularly Indian feel to it).
Court cases against this government order were filed way back in 1994 in the High Court of Karnataka by the aggrieved English medium schools. After mulling on it until the cud became rancid and fermented our Justices have finally said in 2008 that the government order is against the Indian constitution. Phew! It took 14 years. By the way, the timing of the judgment should not be seen as a coincidence. This judgment has come soon after the inward looking Gowda & Co lost power in Karnataka. Perhaps the Noble Justices thought that delivering the “landmark” judgment under the BJP government would be safer because the party would not seriously pursue an appeal in the Supreme Court. And this would ultimately keep the legacy of these Judges alive. But don’t worry, this judgment too will go on automatic appeal to the Supreme Court to save (future) ass on all sides. And maybe allow some previously unappreciated Supreme Court Justice to make his own definitive “landmark judgment.” After which, the poor High Court Justices’ 319 page judgment will no longer be read, studied or referred to in the press. Dammit. High Court Justices want their own legacy too!
Anyways, this curious political dance has come to an end and children can finally go back to learning their A, B, Cs in Karnataka. Post High Court decision, there will probably be another round of bribe taking from “renegade” English schools in Karnataka. Soon they will be “regularised” (another word that Indians have adopted as their own. Its actually a sister term to derecognition. Derecognition is the older sibling because its threat always comes before eventual “regularisation”). Now, the appeal in the Supreme Court will only be pursued half-seriously to act as a lever for school managements who refuse to pay up regularisation “fees.” Meanwhile, the next landmark judgment from the Supreme Court heads our way a few years from now. That judgment will essentially say the same thing as the Karnataka High Court one, but with greater literary flourish, a greater anguish for the “weaker sections of society” who desire social mobility through English and a few more pages of ink (319 being the lower limit).
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Resources for the non-jaded and eager.
[Merinews] Can government impose the medium of instruction?
The above article has some nice background information
[The Telegraph, Calcutta] Court speaks up for language right
[Zeenews] Karnataka HC order on Govt`s order on languages in schools
[Sahilonline] Private schools free to choose medium of instruction
[Khaleej Times] HC trashes Kannada as medium of instruction
[The Hindu] Primary education only in mother tongue violative of the Constitution: HC
[NetIndia 123] Primary education only in mother tongue violative of the Constitution: HC