Editorial 1 : Imposing a Symmetry
Context: One nation, one election prioritises neatness over negotiation
One Nation One Election (ONOE): Impact on Constitution
- The implementation of ONOE will involve changes in the Constitution in at least three key areas.
- The first pertains to the parliamentary form of the government.
- ONOE might involve an arrangement whereby the right of the legislature to bring no-confidence motions will be curtailed.
- It is also not clear if the chief executive will continue to have the power to dissolve the legislature and force an early election.
- The second major area will be states’ autonomy.
- It is the only way assemblies will have fixed elections along with the Lok Sabha.
- During the much-touted 1952-1967 period states were not forced or required to have elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha and there was relative political stability as a by-product of single-party dominance.
- The determination to hold elections on a specified date, looks so neat and American.
- By officially making the election presidential, the current proposal runs the risk of jeopardising the federal structure.
- In order to have a neatness in the election cycle, the deeper constitutional promise of representation will be pushed to a secondary place.
- Representatives will not be empowered to unseat the executive and hence, they would no longer be the voters’ agents to decide whether the executive enjoys trust or not.
- if election events are fixed in a five-year cycle, there is every possibility that at times, voters will have no representatives if either the state assembly or Lok Sabha will get dissolved prematurely.
Effects of Overhaul in the Election Cycle
- It will delegitimise the idea that there is anything fundamental or sacrosanct about the Constitution.
- It will prioritise neatness, uniformity and sameness over the constitutional skills to negotiate complexities.
Asymmetry to Symmetry
- India’s federal structure is appreciated globally for its pragmatic asymmetry.
- But it seems India is set to reject this asymmetry.
- With the attack on Article 370, the process of transforming the asymmetry into a formal symmetry has commenced.
- Federal pluralism is sidelined with the push over the language issue and the de facto erosion of states’ autonomy through agencies of the Union government.
- Over and above the fundamental flaws in the proposal for simultaneous elections, the most critical danger it portends is to transform the democratic logic into a logic of oneness.
Conclusion: The long-term politics of constitutional changes for purposes of simultaneous elections can open the doors to more systematically infusing the Constitution with our culture, our ancient ideas and aspirations shaped by those ideas.
Editorial 2 : Some Hard Land Questions
Context: Why digitisation is not enough to reform land laws
India’s Land Governance Framework
- India’s land governance framework is a complex maze of laws that have long hindered the country’s economic and social development.
- Challenges with land holdings in India:
- unclear titles
- insecurity of tenure
- limited access to economically viable land
- These challenges serve as barriers to development goals that include:
- raising rural household incomes
- employment generation through private and public investments
- including in climate-friendly infrastructure projects
- removal of gender-based handicaps in the ownership of land and property titles
- improved securitisation of land for credit
- regularisation of benami properties
- better targeting of farm input subsidies
Digitisation of Land Records
- Budget 2024 had proposed to address these challenges through digitisation and technological solutions by digitising land records, establishing land registries, assigning unique identification numbers to land parcels, and integrating land records with digital platforms such as Agri Stack.
- But the uncertainty surrounding rights to land and its use, along with insecure property titles, and poor quality of land records in India have less to do with the administrative form they exist in i.e. paper-based or digital.
- Instead, they originate in the mix of conflicting laws and regulations that have handicapped land ownership, transfers, and use for all stakeholders.
Digitisation alone is not Sufficient
- Digitisation of urban land records and updating of property records, while important, may not guarantee improved land ownership or greater access to formal credit.
Political and Administrative Concerns
- De-recognition of property ownership as a fundamental right and exclusion of many land laws from judicial review through the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution means owners do not have judicial recourse against political and administrative whims.
- As a result, the value of land holdings is inevitably subject to risk based on laws that impose multiple restrictions on the transfer of land, that discriminate between types and size of land holdings and laws that restrict land use, including leasing and the ability to convert land use across different sectors.
- This has weakened land markets by pushing land transactions into the shadows, and segmented markets. This has made land consolidation costly, while increasing the reliance on the state for land acquisition.
- Digitising land records alone will not solve this problem, instead, legal reforms are needed to facilitate land consolidation and enable more efficient land use.
Addressing the Issues
- A comprehensive overhaul of the legal and administrative framework is needed to incentivise accurate reporting and improve land record management.
- Current proposals, like integrating land records with the Agri Stack platform, fail to address these deeper legal and institutional challenges.
- Effective reform requires updating tenancy laws and land use regulations for accurate reporting.
- Land banks, intended to address land availability for renewable energy, infrastructure, and industrial projects, face legal hurdles. Simply promoting land banks will not be effective without addressing underlying legal and regulatory issues.
- An approach focused on technological solutions is insufficient to tackle the deep-rooted issues of land fragmentation, informal tenancy, gender inequality, and suboptimal land use.
Way Forward
- To unlock the potential of India’s land resources and support inclusive and sustainable development, a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s land laws is necessary.
- This requires a multi-pronged approach that encompasses legal reforms to strengthen property rights, streamlining regulations, and facilitating efficient land markets, alongside complementary measures to promote land consolidation, improve land records, and enhance women’s land rights.
- By prioritising fundamental legal reforms, India can create a more enabling environment for agricultural productivity, infrastructure development, renewable energy expansion, and social equity.
Conclusion: Only by addressing the root causes of the challenges facing land management can India truly harness the power of its land resources for the benefit of all its citizens.