New Delhi, January 2
With elections to Communist bastions only months away, Left parties today donned the hardliner mask by opposing the disinvestment of government stakes in four PSUs, saying no to pension Bill and chalking out plans to protest during the visit of US President George W. Bush to India this year.
Talking to newspersons after a 90-minute meet, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat said, “Disinvestment of shares of profitable PSUs is not the proper way to raise resources.”
He said Left parties would submit alternative proposal to the UPA government for resource mobilisation at the next meet of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee, meet likely to be held next week.
The leaders of the four parties met for about two hours this evening in the backdrop of their meeting with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, where he had discussed the proposal of disinvest of 15 per cent of government stakes in HUDCO, National Mineral Development Corporation, Neyveli Lignite and Power Finance Corporation.
At the last meeting of the Coordination Committee, the government, when it agreed not to divest its stakes in BHEL, had proposed disinvestment of some of its stakes in profit-making non-Navratnas and the Communists had agreed to consider the proposal on a case-to-case basis.
While the government had 100 per cent stake in the PFC and HUDCO, it had 98 per cent shares in Neyvili Lignite and the NMDC.
The government had informed the Left leaders that the money collected by disinvestment would go to the National Investment Fund to be used for social sector projects.
On the pension Bill, the Left parties today reverted to their old position that “privatisation of pension funds is not acceptable” and therefore, they were opposed to the PFRDA bill.
The Communists had somewhat softened their stand when they decided to hold talks with the government on the Bill, despite opposition from the trade union wing of their party.
The Left, reverting to its stand that the pension fund should not be invested in the market, was a clear indication of the breakdown in their talks with the government.
With US President George W. Bush scheduled to visit the country this year, it was expected that the Communists would raise their red banner to voice their protest and organise a nationwide campaign.
When asked that they were opposed to US President’s visit or the US imperialist policy, CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan said, “We are opposed to both. See the US policy towards Iraq and other places.”
Mr Bush, during his visit to New Delhi, was likely to put the seal of the Indo-US nuclear agreement, which had evoked a strong protest from the Communists.
Even as the airport modernisation project in Delhi and Mumbai reached an advanced stage, Left parties were hopeful of convincing the government of an alternative strategy.
Mr Karat said, “The matter of airport modernisation will be taken up at the next meeting of the
Coordination Committee.”
The Left parties, not satisfied with the stand taken by India at the WTO ministerial conclave in Hong Kong, decided to come out with a paper on the issue, to be given to the government.
The Left leaders said they would come out with a paper which would put forward the position that should be taken on the issues concerning India and developing countries in the forthcoming negotiations.
The Assembly poll to Left bastions of West Bengal and Kerala are scheduled to be held in May.
