'I'm an activist ... not a Ram Naik'

Q&A: Mani Shankar Aiyar

Mani Shankar Aiyar

Petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is known for shooting off his mouth and stirring controversy. In a free-wheeling interview with Business Standard, he blames this partly on the media and partly on a P G Wodehouse brand of humour that he feels many are incapable of appreciating. Excerpts:

You had set up a committee for synergising the operations of oil PSUs but that didn't help. Is such a synergy possible?

In my quest for alliteration, I called the committee Synergy in Energy, whereas what I wanted was synergy in the public sector hydrocarbon sector. They took it literally and made suggestions accordingly. But I am not the minister of energy. The bulk of the recommendations were outside my jurisdiction and have been sent to the PM. The larger question of how we can secure synergy remains unanswered. Each of these PSUs is attempting to integrate all along the value chain.

How do you view this?

With some concern. I wanted to know from ONGC, and still haven't got a reply, on what their investment in exploration and production (E&P) was in proportion to their turnover. I see large sums of money being pledged in downstream areas, but still don't have a roadmap for how we're going to increase output from the current 27 million tonnes. It is my duty as a minister to push for E&P and the country's energy security.

ONGC has bagged 59 out of 110 blocks under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP). How are they moving away from domestic E&P?

That is what I want with fact and figures. I am proud of what they have done in the international market. But the NELP blocks are what have come after a large number of nomination block have been given to ONGC. On the basis of geological evidence collected, the nomination blocks hold considerable potential. The number of those blocks that have been exploited fully is a small portion of what has been awarded. With regard to discovered fields, our recovery rate is extremely low compared to international norms. I would like to see a much more activist policy with regard to forging partnerships.

Everything you do is seen as a face-off between the ministry and the PSUs.

The ministry was much less activist until I came, so it was easier for oil companies to deal with the earlier minister. I am much more of an activist, I ask more questions so sometimes there is more delay and some reluctance to give answers. It is a healthy dialectic. I don't see why there should be a dialogue undertaken through the media. Journalism is the only profession where theft is regarded as a highest virtue. Documents are constantly being stolen and printed in media. The fact that we are conducting this dialogue does not mean that we are at loggerheads. It's a manthan, not a WWF performance.

There have been cases where my officials and the ONGC CMD (to a certain extent, the GAIL CMD) have a difference of opinion. I was not aware of it till they reached a stand-off situation. I've suggested referring this to the ultimate authority.

I either have the virtue or the vice, I am not sure which, of making comments in my PG Wodehouse way and instead of laughing, if you take exactly the same words and start frowning, you can regard it as a battle. It is not.

Have the oil PSUs become too powerful?

Not at all. The more they exercise autonomy, the more they must be accountable. It is nonsense to say that they are accountable only to the stock market. They are also accountable to the 74 per cent owner who is the President of India and that accountability should be extended to what Parliament regards as accountability. Do you think it would be OK for me to say, when there was an LPG shortage, that it was none of my business since the oil PSUs are navratnas? These companies have to function autonomously within the democratic system which holds a minister responsible for the fire at Bombay High, not the CMD. It is I who has to answer questions.

What role can government directors perform?

What I found as part of two Joint Parliamentary Committees was that the government directors were totally negligent. When I became minister, I found that there were under-secretaries and section officers representing the government directors. I want government directors to actively pursue government policy and its concerns. It does not amount to infringement of autonomy of navratnas. I am not asking for interference in allotment of petrol pumps. I am not Ram Naik. I am saying that in major issues of policy and minor issues of nano management of interest to people, there needs to be a dialogue and the place for dialogue is not newspapers.

You have burdened the oil PSUs with huge under-recoveries.

Simple economics is not practical politics. There was never any dismantling of the APM for diesel and petrol, and with regard to LPG and kerosene, there was never any announcement of dismantling. In the last price hike, the burden has been shared equitably "" 51 per cent was borne by the oil companies, 36 per cent by the government and only 13 per cent was passed on, and even then effigies were burnt. This is the political reality.

There was a Lahiri committee last year and now there's a Rangarajan one. How will this help?

It is not for me to see. There are enough differences within the government and the ruling coalition. This committee will give a starting point for discussion. The Lahiri Committee did not take into account the relentless march of prices.