Govt selling India’s crown jewels to a select few, idea is to create monopolies: Rahul

The TMC said the decision is a “dangerous bid” by a “bankrupt” Narendra Modi government to raise money by gradually handing over sectors like railways, roads, airports and mining to corporates and called it an anti-people move. The CPI(M) said the National Monetisation Pipeline, released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, “details the loot of national assets and infrastructure”. The party called it “an outright plunder of people’s wealth”.

Addressing the media along with former Finance minister P Chidambaram, Rahul said all assets will go to “only three or four people”, as these are the “sectors those three or four people are interested in”. He said, “This entire privatisation is designed to create monopolies. The whole idea behind this is to create monopolies for three or four people…. The Prime Minister insists on building two or three monopolies that own everything in this country.”

Rahul said the government “clearly has mishandled the economy” and does not know what to do now. “As a last resort, they are selling everything…. To me, this is a huge tragedy; it is something every patriotic person and every nationalistic person should oppose,” he said.

Rahul said BJP claims nothing happened in India for 70 years, but now assets created in all these years are being sold. “Everybody knows who this is going to. There is no confusion,” he added.

The Congress leader said there are other issues related to the exercise — like “what happens to reservations, for example and…what happens to the strategic industries” — and asserted that the Congress will study these issues and come out with its views soon.

Calling it a “grand bargain sale, and a grand closing-down sale”, Chidambaram said, “This exercise has been designed without any ex-ante criteria. The government should have spelt out what its criteria were and what its goals were. You don’t embark upon such a big exercise without first setting out the criteria and what your goals are. You don’t embark upon such an exercise without consultations with stakeholders.”

Have the railway unions and employees been consulted, he asked. “Have port workers been consulted; have farmers been consulted,” Chidambaram asked. “This is all hatched in secrecy in this wonderful organisation called Niti Aayog.”

Chidambaram said the government claims it is going to raise money. “Can that be a goal by itself? Can that be a sole goal to virtually sell assets built over 70 years? In order to collect Rs 1.5 lakh crore a year by way of rents, call it by whatever name, they are indulging in what I would call a grand bargain sale, a grand closing-down sale, because virtually no public sector will be left after this exercise.”

Rahul said the Congress is not against privatisation but believes there should be a strategy for privatisation. He said the UPA government’s strategy was not to sell strategic assets and companies where there is a risk of monopolies being created. He said the UPA privatised companies that were chronically loss-making, with minimal market share.

Chidambaram said the Finance Minister has said that the exercise will be co-terminus with the Rs 100 lakh crore national infrastructure pipeline announced by the Prime Minister. He said: “You are collecting Rs 6 lakh crore in four years to build a Rs 100-lakh crore infrastructure. What arithmetic is this?… I know there are many magicians in this country but I can’t imagine a greater magician than this government. I think this is a scandal. People must begin to discuss it, debate it…”

He said the government cannot spring a surprise upon the country without any consultation. “This is a dangerous slide and I wish the country wakes up to what these guys are up to,” he added.

Slamming the move, the CPI(M) Politburo said, “Selling family silver to meet daily expenditure makes neither economic nor common sense. Selling assets for a song when the markets are low benefits only crony corporates and promotes crony capitalism.”

Addressing the media in Kolkata, TMC’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, said that the National Monetisation Pipeline is an “unprecedented anti-people move” that did not figure in the BJP’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It was also not discussed in Parliament, said Roy, who is TMC’s chief whip in the Upper House.

“The National Monetisation Pipeline was not discussed in Parliament or any Parliamentary committee, or the consultative committee of the Finance Ministry,” the Trinamool leader said. “There was a brief mention (of it) in the Budget speech of the Finance Minister. This was decided by the NITI Aayog, which is not a constitutional body. It was set up after a recommendation from the government.”

Since it was not mentioned in the BJP’s election manifesto, the NMP did not have the consent of the public, he added.

Referring to the provision in the NMP for a lease extension, Roy said. “The Modi government will be there till 2024. How can it decide what will be done after the next Lok Sabha elections? The main aim of this party [BJP] is to do business.”

He said, “It is alarming that a perpetual lease has been granted to the private sector and this lease can be extended further. It will destroy the ecosystem. Work security will no longer exist, and hire-and-fire policy will dictate. No strikes or protests will be allowed. The government is doing this because it has gone bankrupt. It is not working for the public but for corporate companies. We oppose this kind of economic reforms.”

With inputs from ENS, Kolkata