War of words over Bhel on

Karat, Raja call on Sonia, may be invited to meet PM soon

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today met leaders of the Left parties to resolve the tussle between the United progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Left over disinvestment in the profit-making public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel). But the meeting failed to arrive at a solution as both sides reiterated their positions.

Left leaders may be invited to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before he leaves for his trip abroad on July 5.

The 40-minute meeting was attended by Prakash Karat of the CPI(M) and D Raja of the CPI. Left leaders said Gandhi held the meeting in her capacity as the UPA chairperson and did not speak for the government.

According to Left sources, Gandhi repeated the government's position, asking where the money to fund social sector schemes would come from if not from the profit-making PSUs.

The Prime Minister had advanced the same argument at the last UPA-Left co-ordination committee meeting, held two weeks back.

The Left leaders told Gandhi that the debate about raising funds for the social sector was separate from that on disinvestment. They said the Left had given suggestions for raising money for the social sector investment in a note submitted to Finance Minister P Chidambaram before the Budget.

After that meeting, the Left parties wrote to Gandhi that they had decided to "suspend their participation" in the UPA-Left co-ordination committee meetings, since the consultative process between the two sides was not yielding any results. They referred the Bhel divestment decision to substantiate their point.

"On behalf of the Left parties, both Karat and Raja explained the Left stand regarding the violation of the specific provision of the common minimum programme about navaratna companies in the context of Bhel disinvestment," said a Left statement issued after today's meeting.

According to the statement, Gandhi after hearing the Left leaders suggested that "a way should be found out to settle the matter as early as possible".

However, according to sources, Gandhi contended that it was an "issue of ideological difference" leading to difference of opinion in the way the common minimum programme had been read.

Though the Congress is unwilling to roll back the Bhel disinvestment decision, the party is also unwilling to give up the co-ordination committee mechanism.

The government is unlikely to change the Bhel selloff decision, especially after the Cabinet has given its assent to it. If the government goes back on the decision, it will be charged with appeasing a set of forces, which are not even participating in the government.

The current zero-sum game on disinvestment places both the government and the Left in a win-win situation and is likely to endure for some time.

The government is seen bravely pursuing the reforms agenda, while the Left will seize upon this as a way of explaining to its cadres in West Bengal and Kerala that it supports the UPA, but only up to a point.