Modi’s greedy capitalist friends want to buy profit-making CONCOR: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the Narendra Modi government over its proposed disinvestment of the Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR), which is a profit-making Navratna public sector undertaking.

Gandhi said in a tweet that some of the PM Narendra Modi’s “greedy crony capitalist friends” had set their eyes on the Navratna company and the government was ready to comply with their wishes, even though the employees oppose the move.

His comments came after meeting the members of the employees union of CONCOR, who gave him a petition in his capacity as a Member of Parliament against the proposed disinvestment by the Narendra Modi government from the PSU.

Rahul Gandhi also shared a copy of the petition and shared some pictures with the union's members.

"Highly profitable and strategic, the Container Corporation (CONCOR) is a PSU jewel that some of the PM's greedy crony capitalist friends are hungry for and the government plans to sell,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

"I met members of the CONCOR union today. Please share their attached petition and support their cause," he added.

The petition says that the CONCOR was given Rs 65 crore in FY 1989-90 as paid up capital but it has so far returned a dividend of Rs 4,669 to all its shareholders, including the central government. In the last financial year, the PSU generated a profit of Rs 1689 crore.

The petition underlines that with the completion of dedicated freight corridor, the company’s total market value would increase drastically from Rs 34,733 crore at present to around Rs 1,00,000 crore because all its container terminals are located in the close vicinity of dedicated freight corridor.

The employees, through the petition, stressed that the privatisation of the PSU would affect nearly 10 lakh employees, which means a whopping 10 lakh families.