No review of Bhel selloff, Govt to Left

Public sector character of Navratnas will not be altered: Chidambaram

With the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government today saying that there would be no review of the decision to disinvest a 10 per cent stake in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel), the Left, which had called for a special co-ordination committee meeting on the issue, was forced to adopt a defensive posture in reiterating its opposition to the move.

"The Left parties and the government exchanged views on disinvestment with particular reference to the Bhel case. The government made it clear that the public sector character of Navratnas will not be altered," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after a one-and-half hour meeting of the Left-UPA government co-ordination committee.

A brief statement, released jointly after the meeting said, " The government have made it clear that the public sector character of the Navratnas will not be altered and the future capital requirements of these PSUs will be met. The Left parties have reiterated their position on disinvestment, but agreed to discuss the matter further among themselves."

When asked what the government meant by not altering "the public sector character of PSUs", Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) admitted that the Left and the government had their own interpretation what the "public sector character" meant.

The issue of hike in the petroleum product prices""a political hot potato""did not come up at the meeting. "The issue did not come up for discussion," Yechury said.

The meeting was attended by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Prithviraj Chauhan and Congress leader Ahmad Patel.

The Left parteise were represented by Yechury and HS Surjeet (both CPI-M), D Raja (CPI) and Abani Roy (RSP).

The Left parties will meet next week and trade unions in the first week of July to decide on the future course of action.

While the government was satisfied with holding 51 per cent stake in a PSU, the Left believed any disinvestment would weaken PSUs. The government's stake in Bhel, for example, has come down to 57 per cent after its decision to disinvest 10 per cent stake in the PSU.

While the Left parties have called the move a "breach of the national common minimum programme", the government claims that the NCMP only talks of no "privatisation" in the profit-making PSUs and does not say anything about disinvestment.

According to Yechury, however, the words "privatisation" and "disinvestnment" have been used co-terminously in the NCMP.

While Yechury said there had been some change in the government's attitude towards profit-making PSUs, in light of the statement given out today regarding the "future requirements of PSUs", Abani Roy said, "We are not satisfied with the government's response".

At a meeting with the Prime Minister few days back, the Left had been told that "privatisation" and "disinvestment" should not be equated.

The Prime Minister is said to have repeated this argument today and also asked the Left parties where the money for social spending would come if not from the profit-making PSUs.

The Left responded that if the issue was about raising funds for the social sector, then it needed to be discussed separately.

The Left parties would meet next week while trade unions would meet in the first week of July to decide on the future course of action.

The other issue, which came up for the discussion was the rejection by the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat of the recommendations of the central pota review committee to withdraw anti-terrorism charges against the Godhra train carnage accused.