Reminder: Sociology Seminar Series, 25 Feb, FSI Hall, 2.30pm
Ankur Datta
South Asian University
Faculty of Social Sciences
Sociology Seminar Series
Winter Semester
2014-15
Unsettled Terrains of Legality, Contested Arenas of the State: The Making of the Special Economic Zones Act 2005
By
Preeti Sampat
Delhi School of Economics
Abstract: The Special Economic Zones Bill 2005 was approved by both houses of the Parliament of India in two days, with little discussion and zero dissent. By August 2007, a whopping 366 SEZs were formally approved by the Government of India. In marked contrast, within two years of enactment, resistance against land acquisition for SEZs erupted across the country from peasants’ and citizens’ groups. State and central governments responded to resistance variously with violent repression, tactical reversal, negotiation and deference. In the ensuing furor, the Government of Goa cancelled all 15 approved SEZs in the state, and unprecedentedly revoked the state SEZ policy. As SEZs became political ‘hot potatoes,’ the year 2011 saw a near freeze in investor enthusiasm. Requests for ‘withdrawals’ of approved SEZs grew. By April 2014, the number of approved SEZs reduced to 576, and SEZs were increasingly portrayed as ‘failures’ and victims of an ‘unstable policy environment’ by industry representatives and in the media. The central government’s 2007 decision to disallow forcible land acquisition for SEZs was a serious blow to medium and large SEZs. The introduction of the Minimum Alternate Tax by the Ministry of Finance in 2011, deepened the sense of injury.
Using ethnographic and archival materials, my work analyzes the law-making process of SEZs in India, and their failed trajectory of implementation in Goa. The formal law-making process has involved several Ministries—predominantly Commerce and Finance—at loggerheads with each other. 'Soft law' settings, by which I refer to industry-bureaucrat conclaves and recommendations by industry, played a significant role. Protests in SEZ areas influenced political 'course-correction.' Beyond the pale of evidence but shadowing formal and soft law circuits, rumors and gossip point to Ministerial rivalries and high-level corruption as major extra-legal forces shaping the law. The exclusions and compulsions of these circuits have determined the legal trajectory of SEZs with ‘revisions’ and ‘reversals.’ In this dynamic contest of power, legality is unsettled, and ‘the state’ emerges as an arena of competing ideologies and interests, influenced in turn by historical legacies and immediate political contingencies.
Preeti Sampat is an anthropologist working on rights to land and resources in relation to infrastructure creation and urbanization in India. Her doctoral work is a legal ethnography of the Special Economic Zones Act 2005 that traces the law's policy genesis and evolution at the national level, and failure in implementation in Goa. Her current research examines emergent land and resource struggles along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
Date: 25th February 2015, Wednesday
Time: 02.30 PM
FSI HALL, South Asian University,
Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi 110021
ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED
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South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021
Phone: +91 11 24122512 Fax: +91 11 24122511
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