With govt clearly bent on privatisation of PSEs, time has come for a national movement to protest against it

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally laid bare his grand programme of dismantling the central public sector in the country which laid the foundation of the core sector industries in India after independence. Last week in his address on disinvestment of assets at a webinar attended by the senior government officials, PM categorically said that PSEs should not be run because they were started many years ago or they were ‘someone's pet project’.

Earlier, the government announced its programme of PSE disinvestment and the decision to go ahead with the sale of the PSEs in non-strategic sectors but this time, the Prime Minister was more specific and he went far beyond what the NITI Aayog suggested in its draft on the reorganisation of the central PSEs.

Government officials have been told now by the PMO that India will monetise or modernise state owned assets and the government's focus should be on public welfare schemes and development rather than engaging in ‘business’.

As a follow up of this directive, all the Central ministries having their PSEs as also the Department of Public Enterprises are now engaged in exercises in monetisation of the assets in the concerned units and the Prime Minister is keen that the dismantling of the public sector are done in the next two years.

In fact, if the plans go as per the guidelines set by the PMO, the great Indian public sector which helped the Indian economy in withstanding many crises in the last sixty years, will be converted into a pale shadow of its present stature by 2024 when the BJP government will be vying for power for the third time.

The Centre has identified by now about one hundred plus state owned assets including airports, seaports and others in oil, gas and power sectors in its asset monetisation road map which, the estimates show, are worth about Rs. 2.5 lakh crore. The crucial oil and gas sector as also the power where the CPSEs have been performing admirably well despite the BJP government's step-motherly attitude are now the prime targets and steadily, the doors are being opened up for the entry of the private sector.

As a part of the new policy, the government will ensure that only the requisite number of state-owned companies remain in the four strategic sectors that have been identified. Just to hoodwink those who are alarmed at this total shift from the public sector to private sector, the Centre is talking of modernising of the PSEs where needed, but in practice, the government, as a part of the deliberate policy of crippling the PSEs, has been depriving the PSEs of much-needed funds for modernisation and in the process facilitating the gradual erosion of their share in the market as against the private companies which are getting government patronage.

This policy during the NDA rule has led to the crippling of the state units in the telecom sector and the same thing may be repeated in the oil and power sector as a result of the discriminatory policies of the government. The senior Secretaries and the CMDs of the PSEs have got the hint from the top leadership of the government that the policies have to be tuned to favour more induction of the private sector as against public sector. Accordingly, the officials are doing follow up actions.

The present situation is no less than a national disaster as far as the future of Indian economy is concerned. Just as the three farm laws passed by the Modi government last year have led to the unprecedented movement of the farmers for the last three months getting a national character, there is a need for a pan-India movement against the government’s bid to dismantle the public sector at a break neck speed.

The central trade unions observed a general strike on November 26 last year protesting against many policies of the Modi govt including privatisation of PSEs, but now the time has come to give this movement a national dimension and link it with the struggle of farmers and the workers.

Even the RSS-affiliate BMS has announced a six phase agitation from March to November against the proposed divestment programme of the PSEs by the Centre. The BJP supported trade union leaders are so angry at the policies of the Centre that they have decided to hold demonstrations in every PSE corporate offices as also hold state level conventions. The BJP supporters working in the PSEs are also feeling the heat of the Centre's policy.

The left trade unions led by the AITUC , CITU and INTUC and others have to take up this privatisation of the PSEs as the central plank of a major national level agitation and give it the character of a pan India movement. The battle for the protection of the public sector is part of the country’s programme for self reliance.

The public sector forms a part of our core values of the freedom struggle. The nation cannot allow Modi Government to destroy this great legacy. The time has come for all out action to defend the public sector. (IPA Service)

(Views are personal)