The 1894 Land Act begins imperiously with “Whenever it appears to the Government the land in any locality is needed or is likely to be needed for any public purpose or for a company, a notification to that effect shall be published in the Official Gazette…” This draconian Land Act was expunged neither during the socialist governments of Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi or Morarji Desai, nor during the period the communists held great sway over India’s politics and policies in the mid-1990s – when Jyoti Basu almost became India’s Prime Minister. All these grand protectors of our land were following 120-year-old British-made decrees like “Whenever it appears to the Government that the temporary occupation and use of any waste or arable land are needed for any public purpose, or for a Company, the Government may direct the Collector to procure the occupation and use of the same for such term as it shall think fit…”.