The CPI today said that the Government is trying to camouflage the disinvestment of HPCL and BPCL with a ‘‘farcical sop’’ for the workers.‘‘What was expected has happened. The three-month cooling off period has brought forth what was already decided,’’ CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said.‘‘The farcical sop about issuing 10 to 20 per cent of shares for the workers means nothing. Corporate giants in America resorted to these as recent events have shown that hundreds of such corporates only swallowed the workers’ retirement funds through this route,’’ Bardhan said.Criticising Defence Minister and NDA convenor George Fernandes, he said: ‘‘He has meekly succumbed to the privatisers, notwithstanding all the rigmarole about the ‘mode of disinvesment’ and so forth.’’The CPI warned that the same fate awaits NALCO, where disinvestment has been put on hold because of opposition from the BJD and other political parties in Orissa.
