In the echo chambers of the Left in Delhi, it seems it is believed that by repeating lies, they would somehow becomes truth. And therefore, there is total uniformity of opinion in the articles being published in the major dailies published from Delhi.
In the Indian Express of today, Christophe Jaffrelot repeats all the worn out, false arguments against the Land Acquisition Bill.
He says (his statements are in double inverted commas, followed by our remarks.) :
1. “Land area under agriculture has shrunk.”
In reality it has not. Now more land in India is under agriculture than it has ever been in history. And irrigated land is also at the all time high. He doesn’t cite the source of his data.
2. “Modi is working to give land to big Corporates.”
Big Corporates do not eat the land. They set up factories on it. And those factories provide quality employment to the people.
3. “Farmers oppose land acquisition.”
Farmers do not oppose land acquisitions. They in fact welcome them, as that is their only hope for a shot at a decent life. Because land holdings are now such that farming is no longer viable livelihood option.
4. “India’s food security will be threatened by land acquisition.”
India is foodgrain surplus country. If this year India is importing wheat, that is only because of the panic created by the media about the damage of wheat crop, and therefore it was thought that speculators would try to use the panic to jack up the wheat prices.
5. “India must not industrialise because it needs land for agriculture as climate change will threaten its food security.”
Firstly, there is no climate change. Climate Change is the new name for the fraud called Global Warming, and is just as fraudulent as Global Warming was. Secondly if at all the Sun decides to change climate of the earth (the Sun, and Sun alone, controls the climate of the earth), riches brought by industrialisation are the best insurance against Climate Change.
He admits that Narmada dam has led to dramatic increase in the growth of agriculture in Gujarat. Would Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy respond?
He admits that only about one third of Indian agricultural land is irrigated. But immediately implies that it can’t be increased further as ground water table is falling. As if ground water is the only source for irrigation water. What about dams, and ponds, and finally sprinkler irrigation?
The fact is that there is no threat to food security in India. Our agriculture production can still be raised by about five times, without affecting industrialisation.
It says a lot about the mediocrity of our ruling elite that such third rate articles get published in our national dailies.
Read the article here.
(Read Anang Pal Malik’s defining articles on land acquisition and industrialisation of India here, here, and here.-Ed)
