CCD meet on PSUs may be put off

NEW DELHI: Caught between two conflicting views on disinvestment of oil PSUs, BPCL and HPCL, the Prime Minister has authorised Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to talk to various ministers on the issue and see if a via media can be found by Friday.
If not, the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment meeting, scheduled for Saturday, may be postponed, sources said.And so, on Thursday, defence minister George Fernandes, whose letter to the Prime Minister triggered the present battle, and his chief antagonist, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, met Advani separately. These meetings came a day after Shourie, accompanied by Jaitley, met Fernandes.
Petroleum minister Ram Naik is also scheduled to meet Advani on Friday.
With virtually only BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley, who is not a minister, backing his stand, and with economic ministers ranging from finance minister Jaswant Singh, IT minister Pramod Mahajan, civil aviation minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and coal minister Uma Bharati opposed to his position, Shourie reportedly softened his stand when he met Advani.
Sources said Shourie suggested the first step could be to explore the question of offloading 25 to 26 per cent shares in the market.
However, Fernandes, in his meeting with Advani, stuck to the position he has taken ever since he wrote his letter to the PM. Drawing attention to the need to look at the security aspect before divesting the oil PSUs, as well as the dangers of creating monopolies, he asked for a review of the disinvestment process.
Meanwhile, human resource development minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who carries weight with the RSS as well, has also reportedly joined the fray, conveying his views to the Prime Minister.
Joshi’s line is roughly the same as that of Fernandes — that the question of national security is paramount when considering the disinvestment of oil PSUs. And that the private sector Burmah Shell had let down the Indian government during the 1971 war.
The policy on disinvestment of oil PSUs must be part of a larger policy on energy security, he reportedly said. Joshi, a strong advocate of swadeshi, also sought a ‘‘mid-term review’’ not just on disinvestment but on the whole subject of economic reforms, it was learnt.
This comes in the wake of reports that Uma Bharati is upset over plans to disinvest a large chunk of the National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) in the near future. She feels that since NALCO is in the middle of a major modernisation programme, which could considerably improve its true worth, it should be left alone.