Collaboration Sutra

From Modern Mughal miniatures by the Singh  Twins

Collaboration Sutra

Renowned columnist Maureen Dowd who writes for the New York Times compared the poor academic credentials of the Republican Party front-runner Rick Perry with that of the Harvard educated and almost professorial President Obama, with not, let it be understood, anything approximating approval for Perry. She ends her piece with: “The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.”

In India, confronted by a host of portentous issues including terrorism, national security, corruption, inflation, economic slow-down and drift in governance, all of which have become onerous, the truth and applicability of Ms. Dowd’s comment, though made in the American context, is indeed perplexing.

It is probably true that neither the people of India, nor our rulers and administrators, quite know how to tackle our problems.  But even though the urban or rural public may not understand the issues or possible solutions very well themselves, they are not willing to passively endure the non-doings of an incompetent sarkar any more.  

One such portentous issue, on which the Government has actually taken some action, is the matter of land acquisition. The snatching of land from its original owners for a pittance without recourse has been carried out with Stalinist insouciance ever since the flag of independent India fluttered first in 1947. Then and throughout since, land acquisition has been carried out with spectacular brutality, instead of being conducted in a manner befitting  a republic aspiring to ostensible equality for its citizens and one boasting universal franchise.

So now, even as the Union Cabinet has already passed a forward looking Land Acquisition Bill for further consideration and enactment by Parliament, the various interested parties and their lobbies are hard at work.

The agricultural land-owners are pleased with the provisions that henceforth acquisition of land by developers and industry will require the promoters to pay four times the highest registered sale price in the preceding three years for land sold and bought in the contiguous rural area. For land bordering urban municipalities, where rates are higher, the applicable formula is double the highest registered price of the last three years for a given area.  In addition, 70% of the targeted land-owners have to agree to the proposal in order for it to go through, leaving the door open for further negotiation and upward mobility of the buying/selling price per acre. 

The Government, in the interests of equity, fair return to its largest voting constituency, and natural justice to boot, will not interfere in this process. It will henceforth confine itself to land acquisitions strictly for the common weal, as in roads and freight corridors with widespread benefits for the general public.  

Consequently, the builders and industry looking at green-field projects are a worried lot, because they think this Bill, when enacted into law, will sharply increase the costs of their projects. In fact, land prices have begun to rise already in anticipation, now that the threat of compulsory acquisition by the Government has been set aside.

These constituents also have a point, though urban builders can, of course, pass on the increases in land cost to the ultimate customers of their flats and villas, and they, in turn, can look forward to sharper appreciation in their real-estate values in short order. The so called low-cost or budget housing is a misnomer and non-starter in the NCR or around any of the metro cities anyway, because even a modestly priced and small flat is priced at over Rs. 30 lakhs. To get these at affordable prices, one has to move to Panwel near Mumbai or Bhiwadi or Kundli near the NCR for example. And given good connectivity, this need not be impractical either, as has been demonstrated in many places abroad.

Industry has also been directed in the Bill to share their potential profits by allocating some 15 to 17 % of the developed land to the original land-owners free of charge so that they can participate and partner in the development of their area.

Most of the complaints of the developers and industrialists are essentially retrograde because they are comparing what is fair to all with what was to their exclusive benefit till lately. So, it won’t surprise anybody when they do all they can to argue for a dilution of various provisions of the Bill before it becomes law.

The land-owners, including illiterate tribals from some of our mineral and resource rich states, are naturally strongly in favour of the new Bill, which seeks, after all, to redress the inequities of the colonial 1894 land acquisition law in force at present.

But even as the discussion gathers traction and momentum, there is another, perfectly workable methodology that has been in use for many years now- that of an equitable collaboration. In this formula, the land owners retain title to their land themselves and the developer or industrialist puts in all the money and expertise to develop it.

Collaboration agreements typically run on a 40% to one third share in favour of the landlord, inclusive of a negotiated advance of monies to seal the deal. This is a fair basis for a mutual sharing of the future appreciation in property values, or handsome profits on sale at any point in the development phase as well.

Similarly, in the case of industry developed in collaboration, the land owners get to participate as shareholders on an ongoing basis, with options to sell part or whole of their holdings as the time goes on, at freely negotiated or market rates.

This form of shared enterprise has the most important virtue of rendering most of the increase in land prices redundant, and normally draws voluntary and enthusiastic cooperation from land-owners. But of course, this kind of transaction may not suit the developers and industrialists who have long been used to a less equitable outright purchase of land at low prices, and the unfettered freedom to work on the development at their own pace and in the manner they see fit.   

In terms of redevelopment of residential and commercial premises and plots in our metros, as well as a number of projects in the surrounding areas, collaboration is a tried and tested method which has proved most successful. There is no reason, given a shift in attitude on the part of business and industry, that it won’t work equally well in rural areas too. 

But to underpin and ensure the good intent of the developer or industrialist, the Land Acquisition Bill, with a minimum of modification, needs to be passed into law as soon as possible.

(1,100 words)

19^th September 2011
Gautam Mukherjee


Published by The Pioneer as Leader Edit on the Edit Page on 22nd September 2011 as "Look beyond new land Bill". Also published online at www.dailypioneer and in The Pioneer ePaper simultaneously.

Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright

Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright

This country’s tectonic plates are shifting, and not just under Sonepat. It is a phenomenon occurring deep down in its unexplored innards. But on the surface too, there is much sensed excitement, like monkeys chattering in the forest to herald the approach of a tiger.

The old formulae, such as the much abused fig leaf of “secularism”, used to dupe the largest minority, and fear-monger amongst the smaller ones, have not totally lost their relevance, but they no longer command blind faith.

The perception of the people has become much more sophisticated as a consequence of greater prosperity and exposure to the world via satellite TV. The left-liberalism of the ruling party has undeniably yielded some benefits over decades of being in power, most of them continuously, but now this success at lifting the lowest common denominator, has come of age with its concomitant changes in aspiration.

This change, in aspiration and sophistication, is evident also in the reception given to the new wave commercial cinema coming from younger directors, and even the success of original music men such as AR Rahman.

Some of these new movies do not have the de rigeur songs; others lack the elaborate masala-mix of melodrama; others still, dare to explore elephant-in-the-room topics. As for AR Rahman, it is a me-and-my-studio-effects phenomenon the old school would not consider seriously. But it is AR Rahman with the international recognition and the Oscar and not any doyen of the old school.

This may all be a middle class and multiplex phenomenon, a metaphor stretched too far, but even then the size, spending power, education, exposure and clout of this segment cannot be denied. This has turned it from a passive “petit bourgeois” mindset, fearful of losing its hold on precarious “respectability”, into a more assertive and expressive one.

The change in the air is also evident in the realm of public affairs in the way the people are proving resistant to the old explanations, the mealy-mouthed platitudes, the lip-service, the sloth, inefficiency, waste and hypocrisy, accompanied by the routine passing of the buck. The inaction and ineffectiveness is resulting in an audible, if not yet loud ticking of the clock, even in the silence of this quartz-batteried and digital age.  

The usual nostrums and broad spectrum stock explanations are not working. Nobody believes the cant being handed out. Truth be told, they never did, but added to the existent disbelief is a certain impatience and unwillingness to put up with it anymore. Even the tele-evangelising apologists for the ruling dispensation are having trouble mustering enthusiasm for the lines they are required to mouth.

As for the sycophancy towards the ruling family at the apex of the Congress Party, and indeed most of its allies, similarly topped by can-do-no-wrong satraps, it all has a tinge of desperation. And no minister of Government or party big-wheel wants to be less sycophantic than the competition, lest it costs one much more than one is willing to lose.

Out on the street meanwhile, the trouble is that the institutions and mechanisms of redressal are themselves dressed in cobwebs and rust. So there is nothing to do but mobilise on the streets, hopefully under the gaze of the force multiplying media.

We may not be part of the Arab and North African “Jasmine” revolution, mostly against dictators and absolute rulers backed by military juntas, but there too, dangerous as it is, it is the street that is the forum.

We in India are ostensibly democratic, but our functioning has always been decidedly feudal, autocratic, even colonial, with brown men replacing white ones. This malaise of obtuse arrogance affects all who get elected to office or occupy those inordinately powerful and unsackable posts in the Government.

The agitation over corruption that has caught the popular imagination is actually a symptom of deeper causes. It is probably the thin edge of a wedge that will open up Indian society to review and reform all that is antiquated and redundant in our country.

And stimulated by these yearnings for renewal, catalysed by this banner of obsolescence, it is difficult to point at even a single area of our daily experience not in need of overhaul. The frightening thing is that the framework and human resources available to bring about such comprehensive change is simply not available in-house to the Government.

Nor can our grasping politicians in faux people-friendly mode and fancy dress to match, cope effectively within their ponderous parliamentary procedures and the moribund Soviet style checks and balances. These are now seen by the public to be  redundant mechanisms and excuses for doing nothing. What we have is a legion of yesterday men and women baffled by the demands of tomorrow, clueless, floundering, ageing, rigid, impotent and unresponsive.

And in the midst of all this, there is the spectre of a tiger approaching, with all the “fearful symmetry” of the four-legged one from William Blake’s evocative poem. Czar Nicholas must have felt like this when a determined Lenin took him and his centuries old monarchy head on.

Mr. Narendra Modi can unite the country under the truth of equal rights and opportunities for all communities, as opposed to the ruling dispensation’s time-worn strategy of playing Peter against Paul and living off the difference.

The Congressional Research Service of the United States has recently acknowledged Mr. Modi’s possibilities as a future prime minister, even before he and his party have enunciated their own positions. 

This comes on top of an abstruse Supreme Court ruling, best understood by competent lawyers in its entirety, but which, the man on the street may be forgiven for construing as a “clean chit”.

In plainspeak, Modi is not Himmler, let alone Hitler, despite strenuous smear campaign efforts to that effect. He is undeniably a most efficient Chief Minister with a mission to deliver what he promises. And he can definitely do likewise at the national level given the chance. And this for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Tribals and every other minority and community alike. Mr. Modi on his part, reacting to the propaganda against him, is working hard on refurbishing his image.

Therefore it is understandable that when the ruling dispensation puts the rise and rise of Narendra Modi in their smoking pipes, they can’t help but gag on the acridity. More so because the way things are going, the people of India could well see Mr. Modi, with his proven experience and effectiveness, as a better alternative to Mr. Rahul Gandhi for the prime ministership of India in 2014.

(1, 089 words)

15^th September 2011

Gautam Mukherjee

Published as the Leader Edit on the Edit Page of The Pioneer on Dussehra 7th October 2011 as "Time to slay our demons". Simultaneously published online at www.dailypioneer where it is archived under Guest Columnists and in The Pioneer ePaper.