Congress defends govt against Left

Taking a dig at the Left parties for often accusing the government of violating the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), the ruling Congress today said that various stakeholders have the right to give their views but nobody has the right to veto the government's decisions.

"Government receives different opinions but it is the prerogative of the government to take a decision," said party spokesperson Abhiskek Singhvi in response to queries about the Left criticism of the government on the airport privatisation issue.

The Left parties have been strongly critical of the UPA government's decisions for what they claim is the violation of the CMP on disinvestment of profit-making public sector undertakings, FDI in retail sector, et al.

Singhvi said the CMP opposed disinvestment of only the Navratna PSUs. Offloading certain percentage of equity from profit-making PSUs did not amount to privatisation since the control remained with the government, said the Congress spokesperson.

Coming in defence of the government on the issue of privatisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports, the party strongly opposed the strike by the airport employees arguing that the process had been going on for years and protesting at the stage of fruition is not fair.

Commenting on the installation of the JD(S)-BJP government in Karnataka today, the Congress came down heavily on the JD(S), saying that the party should drop the secular, from its name as it now sounds like a "cruel joke" and a "farce".