The Evolving Story of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013

The epic journey of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 is the subject matter of this chapter. The chapter traces the travails of the 1894 Act through the various challenges including the Narmada Bachao agitation and various SEZ acquisitions in the early 2000s till the four separate and more recent agitations that set the stage for work on new legislation—Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal, Maha Mumbai SEZ in Maharashtra and POSCO acquisition in Odisha. The UPA’s 2004 Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy was revised in a 2007 Bill, largely as per NAC recommendations, that however lapsed in 2009. During UPA-II, fresh trouble erupted in Bhatta Parsaul in UP and the government elevated Jairam Ramesh to fast pace the passage of the new law. After much contentious negotiation the Act came into being in 2013. The movement reflects a combination of Punctuated Equilibrium Framework and Advocacy Coalition Framework.

The Tactics of Protest

The Lokpal Act, arguably the most dramatic example of recent activism, is the subject matter of this chapter. After summarizing the episodic history and the institutional details of the Lokpal/Lokayukta laws in India since the late 1960s the chapter begins the narrative in late 2010 with a letter from Arvind Kejriwal to Sonia Gandhi protesting the runaway corruption in telecom auctions and CWG. Arvind Kejriwal spearheaded the formation of India Against Corruption (IAC) demanding a pretty radical Jan Lokpal as an independent authority. Support built up steadily till Anna Hazare’s iconic indefinite fast in April 2011 that captured headline and public imagination alike. The government capitulated after a week, and drafting—difficult and contentious—started. After much wrangling and further fasts, a Lokpal Act came into existence in 2013. Touching middle class urban Indians like nothing before it, the movement exemplified punctuated equilibrium and multiple streams approach.

Ensuring Food Security

This chapter narrates the saga of the Right to Food Security. Briefly pointing out various prior food movements, the chapter dates the movement to 2001 in Rajasthan with a writ petition at the Supreme Court. The SC took up the issue with surprising enthusiasm issuing order after order to force the government to comply with reports and action. The government, while not antagonistic, was apathetic. Encouraged by the court orders the activists gathered under a single banner of Right to Food Campaign in 2004 and built on the campaign in court as well as on the ground. Political support finally came when the issue entered UPA’s election manifesto in 2009. Post UPA victory, the NAC submitted its draft bill in 2010 but a substantially altered bill finally got enacted in 2013. The movement reflects a combination of Punctuated Equilibrium Framework and Advocacy Coalition Framework.

Accelerated Change

This chapter captures the almost feverish events leading up to the Criminal Laws (amendment) Act 2013. It starts with the tragic rape of 16 December 2012, and describes the way a local student-led protest rapidly snowballed into a headline-grabbing movement. It attempts to piece together how the word and the passion spread like wildfire throughout the capital, largely through social media. Within days the government announced several women’s safety measures in the capital and constituted a 3-member committee to look into changing the law. The chapter then summarizes the anti-rape movement in India over the years to provide the background for the tumultuous public outburst, as well as the evolution of the law before resuming the narrative on the working of the Verma committee and the speedy sailing of the legislation through parliament. The movement fits primarily the punctuated equilibrium driven by a ‘trigger’ event.

Unfulfilled Promises

This chapter chronicles the almost roller-coaster evolution of the Microfinance. It starts with a brief summary of the rise of the virtually unregulated sector from the 1970s to the 2000s till the 2011 crisis cause by the AP regulation brought it to a standstill, bringing several major players into crisis. RBI reacted with new regulation but the need for an overarching law for the sector was widely felt and sought by microfinance associations like Sa-Dhan and MFIN. The Ministry of Finance constituted a committee in 2011 and a bill was introduced in 2012 but it lapsed in 2014, like an earlier, 2007, attempt. The journey of this policy attempt does not really fit clearly into any framework, though it could arguably be pigeon holed in the advocacy coalition framework. The attempt failed despite collaborative activism and somewhat receptive government, owing largely to the lack of a trigger event.

In Search of a New Theory

This concluding chapter draws a few overarching conclusions from the case studies. While punctuated equilibrium, multiple streams, and advocacy coalition frameworks find most application, by and large existing political theories fail to satisfactorily explain the Indian political process reality. They also lack a common central question. To fill this lacuna, the proposed ‘legislative strategy framework’ correlates the time taken to legislation with the combination of the stance of the activists (conflictual vs collaborative) and that of the government (confrontational vs collaborative) with or without ‘trigger events’. The nine case studies underline the criticality of trigger events, and the wide range of outcomes possible. Given the range of possibilities and the sensitivity to small environmental variations, the newly emerging complex systems approach appears to be the most promising ground for the search of a new theory for this field within this broad framework.

Leveraging Grass-roots Activism

This chapter sketches the evolution of the RTI Act. After pointing out far-reaching consequences of the Right to Information Act, and the worldwide move towards transparency, the chapter traces the judicial activism towards transparency between 1975 and 1996, till it became part of the Janata Dal’s election manifesto in 1989. Still things did not progress much till in 1995, a major workshop on RTI was held at LBSNAA on the subject. A long tug of war ensued as government came and fell till the bill was introduced in 2000. The Freedom of Information Bill passed in 2002 but was never notified. The grassroots efforts by MKSS in Rajasthan since 1990 played a major role in pushing the RTI agenda forward, ultimately leading to the formation of the NCPRI. Finally, the RTI was passed in 2005. Its journey exemplifies the advocacy coalition framework.

The Policymaking Process

This introductory chapter is a scene setter, aimed at public policy scholars and practitioners alike. It provides an outline and brief description of the book and provides a background for its subject matter. It provides a dipstick literature review of the existing literature on social movements and external influences on the policy process. It summarizes the key theoretical models of policy making in the international literature for understanding the policy process and provides a brief review of the policy making process in India, as well as a description, in some detail, of the various stages of law-making in the country. The exposition of the various stages of law-making provides an overview of the influence that various stakeholders in the policy process—the media, judiciary, civil society, and so on—can exert in the process.

The Struggle against Child Labour

This chapter covers the evolution of the Child Labour Bill up to the failed 2012 attempt. After surveying the definitions and extent of the malaise, it touches upon the various complex economic issues, and summarizes the movement from Independence. The scattered attempts began to coalesce into a broad movement in the 1980s which the chapter captures through the lenses of two organizations—the Hyderabad-based MV Foundation and the Bachpan Bachao Andolan. MVF created a grass-root campaign to work with schools of Andhra Pradesh to help enrol child labourers. BBA organized a sustained effort through several high profile agitations using courts and streets including daring rescues from the circus industry and the organizing the highly visible Global March in 1998. The activism gathered momentum to culminate in a Bill in 2012 which failed to pass. A different version was later passed in 2015. The movement broadly conforms to the advocacy coalition framework.

The Journey to the Right to Education Act, 2009

This chapter chronicles the evolution of the Right to Education Act. After listing the evolution milestones of the education system from pre-independence era, the chapter identifies two judicial orders in the early 90s, in the cases of Mohini Jain and Unnikrishnan, as the impetus to a move towards RTE. Several NGOs used the opportunity to start a campaign for education as a fundamental right till they formed a broad coalition under the banner of NAFRE in the late 1990s that intensified grass-root campaign for RTE. The campaign and PILs pushed the government to amend the constitution in 2001 to make education after age six a fundamental right. A long legislative journey ensued that led to the enactment in 2009. None of the existing theories fit the entire journey though some stages correspond to different specific frameworks.