CPM wants to disconnect divestment, Navratna status

With the UPA regime citing party general secretary Prakash Karat's statements to justify disinvestment in non-Navratna companies like Nalco and Neyveli Lignite Corporation, the CPI(M) now seeks to do away with the nomenclatures of Navratna and non-Navratna for disinvestment purposes.

"Is it fair to misinform the gullible people with confused nomenclature of Navratnas and non-Navratnas? Navratna status only enables a PSU having potential to become a global player, to get more autonomy. It is an indication of degree of autonomy and cannot therefore, be a parameter for disinvestments," senior CPI(M) leader Dipankar Mukherjee wrote in an article in the latest issue of 'People's Democracy', the CPI(M) mouthpiece.

Till the other day, the Left parties were strongly in favour of differentiation between Navratnas and non-Navratnas.

They rejected disinvestment in Navratna companies, but were ready to discuss disinvestment in non-Navratnas on case-by-case basis. Mukherjee's arguments mark an apparent shift in the Left stance.

It also encapsulates the CPI(M)'s dilemma over the government's recent decision to divest 10 per cent stake in Nalco and NLC.

While announcing the decision, the government had argued that the Left parties had already given a go-ahead to it.

Explaining the party's reluctance to give a 'BHEL-like' reaction to the latest decision on Nalco and NLC, Left sources had explained to Business Standard that the government was citing Karat who had, on October 22 last year, virtually given a green signal to go ahead with disinvestment from non-Navratna companies.

"We are opposed to the disinvestment of Navratna companies but shares can be sold in other companies to raise resources for social sector. We can discuss the sale of shares in other PSUs," the CPI(M) general secretary had said at the Forum of Financial Writers here.

With the CPI(M) trapped in the apparently self-woven web over disinvestment, the party is now seeking to make amends.

Linking the nomenclature of Navratna with a company's potential to become a global player, Mukherjee said that Nalco, with its profit of Rs 1,564 crore, sale turnover of Rs 5,324 crore and export earnings of Rs 2,269 crore, had all the potential for becoming a global player.

Most of the profit-making PSUs are competing in and outside the country against global players. Necessary autonomy should be provided to these PSUs so that they could gain the status of Navratnas.

"That is the essence of categorizing certain PSUs as Navratnas during the United Front regime. It was not meant to fulfill the criteria of disinvestments set by Shouries and Chidambarams," wrote Mukherjee.