Before he left for his Europe tour today, the Prime Minister is said to have read the reforms riot act to his recalcitrant Ministers Mssrs George Fernandes, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Ram Naik, who have been opposing disinvestment in the oil sector. In individual meetings, Vajpayee made it clear to them that the policy of disinvestment would continue, and in his inimitable way, he let it be known that he would be sorry if it came to a situation in which they had to part company. Rarely has the PM come out so forthrightly against those who have opposed his policy, sources said. To express his unhappiness with the anti-disinvestment troika, Vajpayee reportedly kept a couple of these ministers sweating for a few days before he gave them an appointment to see him which they had sought. In the last couple of days, the ministers have softened their stand. Fernandes announced publicly that he was never opposed to the strategic sale of HPCL and BPCL, and had only sought a ‘‘mid-course review’’ of the reforms process which he claimed the Prime Minister had agreed to. Fernandes is learnt to have told the Prime Minister that while his stated stand on disinvestment had been his position for decades, he also indicated that he would go by the consensus being evolved by the PM. Naik, too, is believed to have fallen in line. Joshi is believed to have given explanations to the PM of how the meeting between him, Fernandes and Naik had taken place at his residence, which was nothing unusual as they met often. Joshi who is emerging as the blue eyed boy of the Sangh, and was praised by the RSS chief K S Sudarshan at a book release ceremony last week for the unapologetic position that he had taken on issues and who was by Sudarshan’s side for many hours during the latter’s recent visit to the capital, has been considered close to the PM. Joshi was not very happy when L K Advani was made the Deputy Prime Minister. The PM is believed to have expressed his disappointment with the position taken by Joshi. Significantly, Vajpayee has taken with him Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on his European tour. Both the Ministers had spoken up in favour of strategic sale of the oil majors in recent meetings of the Cabinet.
