New Delhi, October 22
“Those who predict the future try to take the place of God”, is the comment of Union Coal and Mines Minister Uma Bharti on Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie.

While sanyasin-turned minister Uma Bharti’s observation today on the future of the public sector unit NALCO can be dismissed as a row between a typical politician and a technocrat-turned-minister, there are indications that both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani are not willing to defend Mr Shourie to the hilt as they have done in the past.

Ms Bharti will meet Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani on the issue of NALCO in the next few days and present the case of the ministry, which has a view on the disinvestment of the prestigious PSU.

Mr Shourie had attacked Ms Bharti in Mumbai, asking that whether the Prime Minister would also have to bite the dust as he had spoken with Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik on the disinvestment of NALCO.

It is understood that Mr Vajpayee had promised Mr Patnaik part of the disinvestment proceeds to the Orissa Government for development of backward districts of the state. Ms Bharti had observed earlier that those who supported disinvestment would have to bite the dust.

Though Mr Shourie’s brusque and direct style of functioning had been rubbing many people the wrong way ever since he was inducted in the Council of Ministers, the way he accused Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh of lobbying during a meeting at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters on September 7 went a little too far and had turned scales against him, sources said.

The high-profile Disinvestment Minister told the BJP leaders that Mr Fernandes and Mr Singh had opposed IPCL going the Reliance way.

Bringing such details in the public and party domain and projecting the two top ministers of the Vajpayee government in bad light could not be overlooked by either Mr Advani or Mr Vajpayee, sources said, adding that the Disinvestment Minister had to go now without projecting disinvestment as the priority policy of the government.

While earlier Mr Shourie used to enjoy the unstinted support of the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, even the Sangh was now divided, with one section still supporting him as his popular image continues to remain unsullied and the other section beginning to question his unbending, uncompromising and unrelenting attitude.

Specifically on the NALCO disinvestment, Ms Bharti said the government had so far decided to pump in an investment of Rs 4000 crore in the company. Seventy per cent of these funds had already been released.