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The clincher came from Advani

By Alok Mukherjee

NEW DELHI JUNE 25. The Union Cabinet meeting today was divided on the issue of allowing foreign equity in print media. The stand taken by some Ministers came as a bit of a surprise.

The hardliner, Murli Mahohar Joshi, supported the move to allow foreign equity. His point was that with 24-hour TV channels telecasting news from outside the country and the probable entry of the foreign media moghul, Rupert Murdoch, into domestic TV, there was little point in continuing with the restrictions on foreign equity in the print media.

He received support from Jaswant Singh, who said there was no point in discussing the issue since foreign equity would have to be allowed in the print media.

Arun Shourie had a slightly different point. He is understood to have said that 26 per cent foreign equity would hardly evoke any response from potential investors. He was for allowing 100 per cent foreign equity.

The NDA partner, Nitish Kumar, held the view that opposing foreign equity in print media was tantamount to opposing the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. Another surprise was the stand taken by Yashwant Sinha. He apparently was "surprised'' to see so much support for the move. Opposition to the move also came from Uma Bharti and, again surprisingly, from Arun Jaitley.

The clincher came from L.K. Advani. He proposed settling for 26 per cent foreign equity and the Cabinet decided to adopt that position.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj, later responded to media queries about any differences within the Union Cabinet by saying that "all Cabinet decisions are unanimous and the Cabinet is collectively responsible for its decisions.''

On the Sangh Parivar's position, she said "the Sangh Parivar is not totally opposed to it and, don't forget, some people belonging to the Sangh are in the Cabinet and are with this decision.''

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