Concern over dilution of pro-people pieces of legislation by political establishment

Maj. Gen. Sudhir Vombatkere criticizes politicians for diluting pro-people legislation, highlighting inequality and environmental concerns in India.

Expressing concern over the dilution and watering down of pro-people pieces of legislation in the country, Maj. Gen. Sudhir Vombatkere (retd.) said on Saturday, June 29, that political class cutting across party lines was guilty of it.

He was speaking at a programme ‘Core concerns of our Times’ organised by Mysore Open Forum, at Wadiyar Centre for Architecture.

Maj. Gen. Vombatkere, a member of the National Alliance of People’s Movement and PUCL, listed a slew of legislations passed by the Parliament such as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, Right To Information Act, Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation etc.

He pointed out that most of such pro-people legislations were presented to the Parliament as a fallout of people’s movements. However, Central and State governments have systematically ignored, watered down, modified, or changed the notifications under the pretext of the stated objective of economic growth, said Maj. Gen. Vombatkere.

He underlined the nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations as one of the reasons for such dilution of pro-people’s law as the partners in nexus saw financial profit for each of them individually. But ironically people who are adhering to the Constitutional tenets and urging the government and the political class to follow the law they have enacted were experiencing violence on the ground and subjected to legal prosecution by the State, he added.

Maj. Gen. Vombatkere said the model of economic development interpreted as growth was responsible for many of the core concerns of the times such as inequality, global warming, climate change, and social unrest. The flawed ‘’industrial economic development’’ model focuses on GDP alone without addressing people’s problems, he added. The fact that the Modi government was providing free food grains to 83 crore people highlights the inequality in the society, said Maj. Gen. Vombatkere.

Dwelling on inequality, Maj. Gen. Vombatkere also referred to the displacement of millions due to the Narmada Dam project and the failure of the government to rehabilitate them. But the same governments bend over backwards and offer land at subsidised rates to the corporates, he said.