The importance of being Ram Naik

NEW DELHI: When the Prime Minister releases a collection of union petroleum minister Ram Naik''s Lok Sabha speeches here on Tuesday, it will not be a tribute merely to his having an unbroken record of 25 years as a legislator, the last 14 in the Lok Sabha.
Naik also happens to be one of the three BJP cabinet ministers who has survived intact with his portfolio the 11 cabinet reshuffles the PM has presided over since this government came to power in 1999 the other two being deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi.
And it is not that he hasn''t been embroiled in his share of headline-hitting controversies: First, there was the petrol pump scam; then, he came into direct conflict with fellow cabinet colleagues on the process of disinvesting oil PSUs BPCL and HPCL.
But he has emerged unscathed.
Ask him about the fallout of the petrol pump scam and Naik says in his defence, ``I tried to put in place a transparent system of distribution and this will be tested by the Supreme Court. Second, no one has alleged that I have personally benefitted from it.''
Neither does he deny that he believed that oil was in the strategic sector and that profit-making majors like HPCL and BPCL should not be disinvested: He explains, ``Till the cabinet takes a decision, a minister can highlight his ministry''s point of view. That is why I placed my views before the cabinet. It was given serious consideration and the decision was postponed by eight or nine months. Then the cabinet took a decision I could have gone along with it or I could have left the government. A democracy works on the basis of consensus.'' And then he adds, ``It is wrong to say that I am against disinvestment, but I am for reforms with a human face.''
Sources close to him point out that the fact that the issue of whether HPCL and BPCL can be disinvested without parliamentary approval is in the Supreme Court means that Naik had ``public support'' for his point of view.
More importantly, Naik has always had the support of the RSS: Indeed, sources say but for ``pressure'' from the Sangh Parivar, there may never have been a petrol pump scam. On the disinvestment issue, too, Naik, was one with the views of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. Like Murli Manohar Joshi, he is seen by the RSS as one who has tried to further its agenda working within the constraints of a coalition government.
Naik, talking about the changing relationship between the BJP or the erstwhile Jan Sangh and the RSS says, `` As the Jan Sangh, the RSS ran 70 per cent of our campaign, and we saved our deposits, that was victory enough for us. Today, the BJP is in power and that makes a difference now we run our own elections, with psychological and moral support from the RSS.''