How Yogi Adityanath's Quick Action Shielded BJP From The Fallout Of 'Politically Harmful' Nazul Land Bill

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) legislative council stalled the Nazul Land Bill on Thursday (1 August), which could have severely harmed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) electoral prospects in the state.

Nazul land is the land that the Indian government inherited from the erstwhile British government. Despite being government land, it is not directly administered by the government and is under private ownership in several places.

The Nazul Properties (Management and Utilisation for Public Purposes) Bill 2024, passed by the legislative assembly on Wednesday, aims to disallow the conversion of such land into private ownership.

Since these land parcels have existed since the British era, many owners have been living on them for a century and the proposed bill would have allowed their eviction by government officers for development works.

Already, the alleged high-handedness of bureaucrats has cost BJP seats, as per review reports, in the 2024 Lok Sabha election as the party came down to 33 of the state's 80 seats from 62 in 2019.

In such a scenario, if the Nazul Land Bill had passed, it could have further dented the party's prospects in the upcoming assembly by-polls for 10 seats and the 2027 UP Assembly elections.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath decided to act when the issue was raised by BJP leaders.

When the bill was presented in the legislative assembly, Allahabad North MLA Harshvardhan Bajpai objected to it.

Citing Prayagraj's example, Bajpai said that people have been living on the Nazul land for a century and evicting them will be contrary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Awas scheme for housing poor people.

He argued, "There should be a provision in the law that those possessing Nazul land and where the poor live, they should get a chance to get these lands converted to freehold."

Similarly, another BJP MLA from Allahabad West, Siddharth Nath Singh objected and suggested that there should be a provision to extend the lease for the Nazul land.

However, instead of his suggestion for 99 years of lease, the amendment was made for a lease period of 30 years. Singh also argued for the renewal of lease of those with bonafide ownership of Nazul land.

Similar arguments were made by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress leaders. Jansatta Dal leader Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya also objected by saying that development cannot be done by bringing people to the streets.

Despite these objections, the bill was passed in the legislative assembly by voice vote.

However, the BJP MLAs approached Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath till late night and expressed grievances regarding the bill.

BJP allies like Apna Dal (Soneylal) supremo Anupriya Patel called this bill "unimportant and opposite to sentiments of the people". Similar remarks were echoed by NISHAD Party chief Sanjay Nishad.

Senior BJP leaders also convinced Adityanath that the law would make people vulnerable to eviction by government officers, who often deploy high-handed tactics. After reconsideration, the CM allowed the bill to be put in cold storage.

However, the bill was needed to be presented in the legislative council because it was already passed in the legislative assembly. Hence, the CM prepared a plan to send this bill to the select committee.

A strategy was reportedly decided in a 15-minute meeting of Adityanath, his two deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, UP BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna.

Hence, when Maurya presented the bill in the legislative council, Chaudhary suggested sending it to the select committee for further consideration, which was unanimously accepted by the house.

This means the bill has been stalled for now and any further decision on it or amendments to it will be made after the committee's recommendations, giving BJP enough room to devise a people-friendly policy.

For now, the BJP has got the upper hand because it took the bill back on its own, rather than under the Opposition's pressure. However, this has led many supporters of the party to question why the bill was brought in the first place.

If we go by the allegations of those leaders who objected to the bill, it appears that the Nazul Land Bill was a brainchild of some bureaucrats.

Many BJP supporters argue that the intention of the bureaucrats may even be malafide as they are known to dislike the BJP in UP, and they might be wanting to harm the party's electoral prospects. Many leaders appear to hold the same view.

For instance, Anupriya Patel has demanded "strict action against those officers" who misled the government in this regard. Similarly, BJP MLA Bajpai alleged that the bill was based on wrong feedback from the officers.

Yogi Adityanath would surely be reviewing the case for this bill and those who proposed it.

For now, the UP government has taken the right decision to put it in cold storage as political philosopher Machiavelli said:

"But above all he (The Prince) must refrain from seizing the property of others, because a man is quicker to forget the death of his father than the loss of his patrimony."