The government today pinned its hopes on Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to bring around defence minister George Fernandes, finance minister Jaswant Singh and petroleum minister Ram Naik in a last-ditch effort to save the disinvestment programme.
Fernandes met Advani today after attempts by disinvestment minister Arun Shourie yielded no results yesterday. Advani later told reporters the September 7 meeting would answer all questions regarding disinvestment. He added that the selloff process was only one of the issues discussed with Fernandes.
Privately, Advani is of the opinion that neither should ministers hold a brief for any particular corporate house, nor should the government formulate policies to keep a corporate house out of the economy. In this he is opposed by Singh and Fernandes, and also the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch.
Senior government officials agreed that if Advani failed to get Fernandes and Singh to fall in line and support the disinvestment process, it would define the limits to his influence as Deputy Prime Minister.
Accordingly, speaking in Mumbai, Shourie invoked L K Advani to admit that though the disinvestment process had hit a roadblock, the latter had helped the disinvestment ministry draw up a time-bound agenda that administrative ministries had to adhere to. He added that this would be discussed at the September 7 meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment.
Everything hinges on the pre-Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment meeting to be held on the morning of September 7.
Naik will speak against the strategic sale of HPCL and BPCL, while Shourie will hammer home the argument that fear of a private-sector monopoly in the oil sector was a spurious argument. Senior government officials told Business Standard companies like Chevron and Texaco had indicated they were interested.
The government is deeply concerned about the Saturday meeting. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has let it be known that he believes the speed of the selloff process will decide the pace of economic reforms.
However, Vajpayee is aware that Fernandes' credentials as a leader who has fought monopolies are strong. Hence, challenging them would send a negative message that the NDA government cannot afford.
