People's Democracy

ON December 11, the CITU expressed concern over the Supreme Court judgement upholding the transfer of 51 per cent shares of the erstwhile public sector Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) and its overall control to M/s Sterlite for Rs 551.5 crore. The CITU also lambasted the euphoria sought to be generated by the government of India and its disinvestment minister in particular, over the same judgement to justify their anti-national policy of privatisation.

As reported, the Supreme Court award in the case, while dismissing the public interest litigation against the divestment of BALCO to Sterlite, held that ‘the government’s economic policy was not generally amenable to judicial review unless there was extreme illegality." It also said that "parliament is the right forum to question such policy decisions and not a court of law."

The CITU said these observations of the Supreme Court do in no way absolve the government and its minister of the grave offence of putting BALCO or, for that matter, other profit making public sector units for distress sale to Indian and foreign corporates through under-valuation of assets and thereby fixing a much lower reserve price for the units under sale. It is unfortunate that the apex court did not consider such an under-priced transfer of national assets to private hands as "extreme" illegality.

The CITU further pointed out that the Vajpayee government has also been ignoring the parliament on privatisation issues by evading replies on the most vital issues relating to transparency of the process and gross irregularities in valuation of the concerned units. Even two years after the sale of Modern Foods and one year after the BALCO sell-out, the concerned CAG reports have not been tabled in the parliament. The CITU denounced this design of the central government to push through its misdeeds just by its slender numerical margin in parliament.

The situation has gone worse after the BALCO sale, as the very concept of valuation of huge assets of the units targeted for sale has now been discarded by the disinvestment minister. This is evident from the ‘Manual on Procedures of Disinvestment’ published by the ministry. The minister opted for the "Discounted Cash Flow Method" to ensure a lower reserve price for the prospective buyers.

The Supreme Court judgement on the BALCO sell-out, though a matter of concern to the CITU and to the entire working people in the country, was not something unexpected, after the apex court’s recent judgement setting aside its previous judgement in Air India case relating to contract labour. In fact, on December 2, the minister loudly applauded in a CII sponsored meet the supportive role of judiciary on ‘reforms,’ as was reported by press the following day. But the Supreme Court judgement on BALCO sell-out cannot take away the right of the working class to oppose and resist the government’s anti-national policy of putting the national wealth on distress sale in the name of disinvestment.

In the background of the ruling combine’s mad drive to sell out public sector units, the working class has to take up the task of defending our economy from loot and disaster through countrywide massive resistance struggle against the government’s policies. The BALCO workers’ heroic strike and the recent massive three-day strike by coal miners against privatisation point to the workers’ awareness about the threat. The CITU appealed to all the trade unions in the country and the working class and patriotic people in general to build a united nationwide struggle to stall the government’s desperate bid to hand over the precious public sector units to the private sector on a platter. (INN)