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During the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party spoke of Indira Gandhi’s bank nationalisation and Jawaharlal Nehru’s decision to set up public sector units (PSUs) — both these decisions were touted as the reason why India escaped the worst of the global meltdown. But at the party’s pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, only one leader spoke of the need to strengthen the public sector. B K Hariprasad, a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and a general secretary of the party, appealed to the finance minister to use the money received from disinvestment to strengthen other ailing PSUs.