)
Sangh Parivar affiliates like Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) today said they were opposed to railways minister D V Sadanand Gowda's plan to allow foreign direct investment or large scale privatization of in Indian Railways.
"We criticise this budget in the strongest possible terms. The move to open Indian Railways to FDI is an indirect way of privatizing the railways. This isn't their (NDA government's) budget," Virjesh Upadhay, BMS general secretary, said. He said BMS, the trade union arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will hold its working committee meeting on 18 to 20 July in Pune to decide upon its action plan to protest against the railway budget. BMS has a strong presence among the 1.3 million Indian Railways employees.
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch's Ashwani Mahajan said they had welcomed the increase in passenger fare and freight rates so that it improved railways services. "But we want the government to come clean on this 'PPP' model. We believe the country's experience with 'PPP' model has not been good in the aviation sector, where user charges have been increased by what is called 'gold plating' the airports," he said.
Mahajan, who heads SJM's intellectual cell, demanded the government release a white paper on what the 'PPP model' would entail, and whether it would lead to making railways expensive for 90 per cent of its users who are poor. Mahajan said SJM wasn't averse to privatizing of operations like ticketing or even housekeeping . "But on the question of bullet trains the government needs to do a detailed study whether a country like India can really afford it," he said.
