Some time ago, the boys were asking me about why Piyush was in jail. I had to collect my thoughts, and try and give them a reasonable answer, without ranting, and yet without sounding hopeless. I put the case to them as a story, but much of it is true-to-life and far worse things are happening.

Land here costs one lakh rupees an acre. This means that if you want to buy land from someone, you need to pay him one lakh rupees.It does not, however, mean that if you have one lakh rupees, you can buy yourself an acre of land: no-one may be willing to sell their land.

Suppose however that a company offers 10 lakh rupees an acre; a lot of people would be tempted to sell their land, especially if the company also offers them jobs to mine the land for metal, or quarry it for rocks and mud or whatever...

Ten years down the line, if the company shuts down its operation and pulls out of the area, the land rendered unusable for farming, the people without a job, nothing illegal would have  been done by it. The "nation" would have ostensibly progressed. But at what cost to the peasants whose very way of life has been destroyed?

Would you agree with those who say that the farmers should not have been greedy...should not have sold their land? Would you condemn the violence that arises in the area by people dispossessed of their livelihoods? Or would you perhaps justify it? Would you accept your complicity in the situation?

Is it not time to rethink the laws governing the use and buying/selling of land?