The Bombay Resolution has disappointed many. It has been criticised as a bundle of compromises, watering-down of slogans, planning for the gallaries, and a modest start. Some critics have found nothing revolutionary in it. But I would call this itself a significant break with the past and a substantial achievement. It is, no doubt, a modest beginning, but it is a precise, time-bound programme with concrete guidelines. It shows a new urgency as also a sense of responsibility and caution in dealing with complex economic problems. I would assert with all emphasis that it is a balanced and a mature approach to the problem. It signifies emergence of a new political will to solve some of the basic issues with renewed vigour.
This Congress, in its policies and programmes, has shown its sensitivity to the basic problems of the people. An important plank in this programme is land reforms. A great deal of legislation was enacted on this subject during the last two decades. But large and significant gaps have been left in its implementation. The land ceilings have been fixed at a much higher level and even the ceilings, as have been fixed, have not been implemented. The result in terms of distribution of surplus land to landless labourers and small farmers has been insignificant. There is thus an urgent need to revise the ceiling itself. The ceiling on land holding must be imposed in terms of family as the unit and not on per capita basis. This will be the only way to get some sizeable land for redistribution. The two basic precepts of security of tenure and fixity of rent are yet to be assured to the farmers in several regions of the country. The ownership of lands on which the houses of the landless agricultural labour stand, has yet to be conferred on them in several States. The resultant feeling of insecurity in the minds and hearts of the landless labourers and small farmers must be removed without any further loss of time to ensure their involvement in national endeavour.
This is an area where we have failed to make any significant dent. The increasing tensions and unrest in the rural areas are a proof of the neglect, if any proof is required at all. It will be wholly unreal to treat these manifestations of frustration, insecurity, anger and impatience of a sizeable section of masses as a pure law and order problem. The glaring disparities in the rural areas as a result of green revolution and technological advances in modes and methods of cultivation have posed problems of staggering magnitude with serious social connotations. It will have to be admitted that the Bombay Session of the Congress showed a keen and acute awareness of this potentially explosive area of tension by laying down a precise time-limit for implementation of land reforms. It also addressed itself to the problem of growing disparities in rural areas by analysing the neglect of smaller cultivators, especially in the dry farming areas.