TLI Staff
New Delhi: As many as eight prominent members of the Rajya Sabha from across the political parties this week questioned the Modi government’s privatization overdrive but Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chose to respond to none suggesting the move is either bereft of merits or it has been nailed yet again on policy front.
Replying to members on the short duration discussion on state of economic situation in the country, the Minister preferred to compare the performance of UPA-II and NDA-I, one of the most convenient strategies to escape the barrage of uncomfortable questions from the opposition parties in the wake of sliding GDP and job losses.
Senior Congress leader in the Upper House and former minister Anand Sharma took on the government head-on over its decision to sell off profit-making central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). He charged the government of cleverly repealing the law to divest government stake in these companies.
“Profit-making PSUs would be sold. Not disinvested but would be sold. Shipping Corporation would be sold, Container Corporation would be sold, Bharat Petroleum would be sold and very cleverly under the Repeal Law. All those Acts of this Parliament, which protected these Public Sector Undertakings, for which there were Supreme Court rulings, have been repealed last year without discussion,” Sharma said taunting the government over Cabinet’s “grand clearance” for disinvestment.
His fellow Jairam Ramesh in the House termed the government’s disinvestment drive as “panic privatization” which will bring short-term gains but would prove detrimental to the economy in the long run.
“You are panicking. And what are you privatizing? You are privatizing Navratna Companies, Maharatna companies and strategic companies. And how are you going to privatize them? Who is going to buy it? Are you going to create monopolies?” Ramesh asked.
The senior Rajya Sabha member noted that everything is not right with the public sector but the answer to that is not to privatize profit-making companies and not to privatize strategic companies in the hope that the investment environment is going to improve and growth is going to pick up.
Members from other political parties such as BSP, CPI, DMK and AAP also attacked the government on the issue.
Some of the MPs expressed serious concern over job losses in the country in the last few years and contended that privatization will only accentuate it further. This will also cut the scope of job opportunity for members from backward classes of the society.
“This, apart from destroying India’s self-reliant basis, also benefits directly the crony capitalists. Such privatization will add to already large-scale growing unemployment in the country,” said West Bengal MP Ritabrata Banerjee.
While the Finance Minister Sitharaman bombarded the members with macro-economic data on direct tax collections, FDI, Jan Dhan Accounts and GST mop-up among others, she did not even touch upon the issue of privatization of profit-making PSUs which include Containers Corporation, Airports Authority of India and BPCL.
Targeting the government, CPI MP Binoy Viswam said disinvestment was being considered as panacea for all the evils.
“Your Government had a panacea for all the evils. One was disinvestment; then came the so-called GST and then demonetization. All the panacea that you were repeatedly telling us were hollow and false. Nothing was effective. The country’s economy is in a very, very bad shape, and nobody can save it,” Viswam said.
One of the most active participants in the discussions on issues of national importance, Rajya Sabha member KK Ragesh said that government should increase the purchasing power of the people rather than selling out the PSUs.
“BPCL is decided to be sold out; Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, Air India, Airports Authority of India, 28 PSUs are listed for selling out. They are going to sell out the sovereignty of our country also, if this is going to happen,” Ragesh said.
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