Land Bill on the agenda of BJP national executive

The contentious Land Acquisition Bill will be the focus of deliberations at the first meeting of the BJP’s newly-constituted national executive under party president Amit Shah in Bangaluru on April 3 and 4.

The BJP’s constitution dictates that the national executive will meet every three months.

However, the party has not held a routine national executive session for more than a year since January 2014. A session of the national council was held in August 2014 to ratify the appointment of Shah as party president.

But Shah has so far not presided over any meeting of the party’s national executive.

The first session of Shah’s national executive promises to be as different from the past as the functioning of the new president in that there will be no economic resolution.

The practice so far was for the executive to deliberate over the political and economic situation of the country and adopt resolutions on the same.

But in the upcoming executive, there will be no economic resolution. However, there will be a resolution on the foreign policy initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A drafting committee that includes party vice-presidents Prabhat Jha and Vinay Sahastrabudhe along with general secretary Ram Madhav is believed to be drafting the political resolution as well as the one dealing with foreign policy initiatives of the new government.

Modi has placed a strong thrust on his foreign engagements and has been widely praised for his focus on the neighbouring countries. In the light of the question mark that had hitherto been placed on his international acceptability, the BJP is naturally keen to project the Prime Minister’s success with his foreign policy initiatives.

The government’s focus on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 will form a major part of the political resolution.

It is believed that a presentation will be made to the national executive on the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill. The presentation will be mostly likely made by a senior member of the national executive, preferably with a rural background.

The BJP is facing stiff opposition on the ordinance that introduced these amendments. The ruling party does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha, where a united opposition is determined to block the amendments.

The Centre has thus decided to re-promulgate the ordinance on April 5 and has already prorogued the Rajya Sabha for the purpose.

While both Modi and Shah with senior ministers and MPs have been busy canvassing popular support for the amendment Bill, it is important that the party understands the import and the reason for pushing ahead with this particular legislation which is being widely opposed.