The Hindu : PM stands by policy on disinvestment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 03, 2002

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PM stands by policy on disinvestment

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI OCT. 2. The policy war between the pro and anti-disinvestment voices within the National Democratic Alliance regime came into the open today, and by the end of day the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, felt constrained to say publicly that he stood by the disinvestment policy. He also appeared to have enlisted the support of his deputy in defence of the disinvestment process.

The day began with three senior Cabinet Ministers — Murli Manohar Joshi, Minister for Human Resource Development, George Fernandes, Defence Minister, and Ram Naik, Petroleum Minister — meeting this morning "over a cup of tea" to exchange ideas over disinvestment in the "strategic" oil sector. By afternoon, the Minister for Disinvestment, Arun Shourie, had sought to downplay the reservations of his senior colleagues.

Though there have been other voices of disagreement over the content and direction of the Government's policy of disinvestment, the dispute seems to have acquired a new edge as it is for the first time that three senior Ministers have felt it necessary to meet in a kind of conclave. The gathering at Dr. Joshi's residence did create the impression that the Government's economic policy is under siege from within.

Earlier, Ministers such as Sharad Yadav, Uma Bharti, S.S. Dhinda and Manohar Joshi (before he resigned to become the Lok Sabha Speaker) had expressed their reservations, in private, about disinvestment in the profit-making public sector units. Besides the reservations within the Cabinet, various sister organisations within the Sangh Parivar have opposed some of the disinvestment decisions.

Soon after playing host to his two Cabinet colleagues, Dr. Joshi had a meeting with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K.S. Sudershan, giving the morning conclave a political flavour. But it is believed that Dr. Joshi's meeting with Mr. Sudershan had nothing to do with the Vajpayee Government's economic policy. (Later, however, the RSS chief did speak out against the disinvestment process at a public meeting and came close to suggesting that those Cabinet Ministers who were advocating disinvestment ought to be shown the door).

On the other hand, Mr. Shourie was rather sanguine about the correctness of the disinvestment policy. In any case, as Mr. Shourie explained to presspersons, "everything depends on the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. I am confident that they feel satisfied as far as arguments are concerned.''

However, all the three senior Ministers were at pains making the point that they were not against disinvestment per se, but rather wanted a careful re-think of the pluses and minuses of disinvestment in the strategic sector.

They maintained that the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment had put on hold for three months the sale of Government equity in the oil public sector, and the idea was that these three months were to be used to come up with alternative suggestions and ideas, if any. In any case, sources close to these Ministers insisted that theirs was a "constructive approach".

Clearly, the three Ministers' much-publicised meeting was intended to ensure that the Arun Shourie line on disinvestment in the "strategic" oil sector was filibustered, if not entirely derailed. And though Mr. Shourie continues to believe that Mr. Advani still has an open mind, it is to be recalled that it was Mr. Advani's "defection" to the Fernandes camp that triggered the roll-back reaction.

Realising that the Joshi-Fernandes-Naik conclave had sent out unhelpful signals and that matters were not helped by the RSS chief's pronouncements, the Prime Minister decided it was time to pitch in in favour of Mr. Shourie.

At a function (to release the Labour Ministry's journal) at his residence, Mr. Vajpayee said he was not averse to a "healthy debate" on the disinvestment process but made it clear that he proposed to stand by his Minister for disinvestment. What is more, Mr. Vajpayee made the defence in the presence of Mr. Advani. It was no coincidence that before the function, Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani had a meeting, where the two are believed to have reviewed the day-long public posturing over the Government's economic approach.

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