Privilege or pillage?

Perhaps the surest sign that the government is pushing forward on the reforms path is that you hear a lot of protest from the vested inter...

Perhaps the surest sign that the government is pushing forward on the reforms path is that you hear a lot of protest from the vested interests. Thus, when genuine reform was happening in the UP State Electricity Board, which would have put an end to the huge theft that plagues the power sector, the unions began a huge protest last month. And now that it looks as if the government has finally got its act together on disinvestment, you hear protests from the likes of Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav and Public Enterprises Minister Manohar Joshi. Their common grouse is that Disinvestment Minister Arun Jaitley is running roughshod over them 8212; as reported by this paper yesterday, Joshi, for instance, has written to the Prime Minister protesting the 8220;uncalled for incursions8221; by the department of disinvestment.

What the incursions8217; are, and how badly they will affect these protestors, of course, can be best seen from the case of the poor Syed Shahnawaz Hussain who is the minister of state for foodprocessing, and was the first to raise the banner of protest against Jaitley. With Jaitley selling off the government8217;s bread-loser Modern Foods to Hindustan Lever last month, poor Shahnawaz lost the only milch cow under him. Similarly, the last thing Yadav wants is to lose the power of patronage that airlines like Indian Airlines and Air-India afford him. The power to get these airlines to give jobs to whom he likes, to grant free tickets to others, or even to influence their purchase decisions.

It8217;s not as if there8217;s proof that Yadav is forcing either of the public carriers to do his bidding so far. The point, however, is that there are enough instances of ministers using the public sector units under their charge in precisely this fashion. An earlier minister tried his level best to get Indian Airlines to purchase small turbo-prop aircraft, but was fobbed off by the airline8217;s chief. And when he was petroleum minister, for instance, Vazhappady Ramamurthy pressured the oil sector PSUs like IOC and ONGC topay for setting up schools in his constituency. Another petroleum minister got another oil PSU for refurbishing his office in the ministry, and even had the entire paintwork redone when he didn8217;t like the colour! Track the number of cellphones and the cars that not just politicians but even various bureaucrats use, and you8217;ll find that most of them are paid for by some public sector unit or the other.

Not surprisingly then, with the public sector used as a milch cow by politicians and bureaucrats alike, they don8217;t want them to be shut down. The problem, however, is that it is the taxpayers who have to pay for all this. Analyses done by Mohan Guruswamy when he was an aide to Yashwant Sinha showed that, in real terms, PSUs lose around Rs 14,000 crore each year, or around three times what the government spends in the agriculture sector, and double that spent on food and fertiliser subsidies. It is this travesty that Jaitley is trying to do something about. Good for you Mr Jaitley. Step over a few more toes ifyou have to.