The ever-energetic Jairam Ramesh has unveiled a new land acquisition policy for discussion. He has taken on the difficult task of changing an old law whose implementation has led to a sorry mess in Nandigram, Singur and Noida, to mention only a few of the recent cases that have hit the headlines. India’s policy regime for managing land rights and land transactions is totally dysfunctional. Greedy politicians in state governments have...

The best thing about Indian politicians is that they make you feel you are a better person. Not surprisingly, Indians often derive their moral confidence not through the discomfort of examining their own actions, but from regarding themselves as decent folks looted by corrupt, villainous politicians. This is at the heart of a self-righteous middle-class uprising against political corruption, a television news drama that reached its inevitable climax in Delhi on...

One started reading the new Draft National Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 with expectations of a great improvement over the 2007 Bills. There are indeed some very good features in the new Bill but, on the whole, one must regretfully report disappointment. Let us see how the Bill deals with some of the key issues involved. (i) Acquisition of agricultural land: The Bill rules out the acquisition, not...

In a blow to the Mayawati government, UP Lokayukta N K Mehrotra on Tuesday recommended dismissal of UP minister for dairy and animal husbandry Awadhpal Singh Yadav after finding him guilty of largescale corruption and misuse of office for extending favour to his kin. This is the state's first case where dismissal has been recommended on charges of corruption by the Lokayukta. "The conduct of Awadhpal Singh Yadav is highly mischievous and not...

While civil society groups in Madhya Pradesh preferred to remain silent over RTI activist Shehla Masood's mysterious death, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan expressing shock at the activist's murder. “I was shocked to read of the shooting of Ms. Shehla Masood...She was young and enthusiastic and I am very sad that she met an untimely end in such a brutal manner,” Mr. Ramesh...