People's Democracy

New Drain Of Nation's Wealth

THERE is a new drain of India's wealth that is taking place under this Vajpayee government. The recent experience of the privatisation of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) and the transfer of its assets, that were accumulated by the public sector company before privatisation, resoundingly confirms the fact articulated through these columns in the past that the entire process of disinvestment/privatisation is nothing else but an exercise to legalise the shameless loot of India's hard-earned public assets by private capital.

At the outset, it must be made clear, once again, that privatisation of public assets makes neither economic nor common sense. This is like a farmer selling his land to meet his daily expenditures and thus end up in penury and depravation lifelong.

Logic and reasoning, however, are not issues with those whose main purpose is the loot of India. And, in order to facilitate this, a massive campaign of disinformation against the public sector is mounted, akin to calling a dog mad before killing it. Leading this campaign is the minister for disinvestment. He should more appropriately be called the `minister for disinformation'.

The case of the disinvestment of the VSNL exposes the anatomy of this loot far more nakedly than what the country has seen in the earlier disinvestments of Modern Foods and Balco. 45 per cent of VSNL's shares and the management of the company was handed over to the Tatas for Rs 2,590 crores. At that moment, the VSNL had a cash reserve of Rs 1,600 crores and profits of Rs 1,407 crores generated in the last financial year, i.e., total reserves of more than Rs. 3,000 crores. Forget all other assets of the VSNL which, by all accounts, are fairly substantial, in terms of cash reserves alone, the company was handed over for much lower amounts. The recent transfer of Rs 1,200 crores by the Tata management to its own company, the Tata Teleservices, speaks volumes of how such brazen loot of public assets is being used to bolster private capital.

This Vajpayee government which wears the label of pseudo-nationalism on its sleeves and resorts to nationalistic jingoism at the drop of the hat has turned out to be the greatest betrayer of our country's public assets built by the sweat of the labour of its people over half a century.

At the expense of repetition, it must be stated that the public sector in India is owned by the people of India. Governments that come and go act merely as managers of these public assets. No manager can sell the assets without the permission of the owner. And, the owners- the Indian people- have not given such permission to this Vajpayee government. This government's policy to facilitate and legitimise the loot of India's public assets must be stopped and reversed immediately.

Dadabhai Naoroji's Drain of Wealth not only exposed the gigantic loot of India's resources by British colonialists but inspired and galvanised generations in India's freedom struggle. The time has come to launch another such struggle. This time around for freedom from a government that is mortgaging India's economic independence and sovereignty.