Centre’s privatisation plan to create monopoly: Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi underlined how the United Progressive Alliance government’s privatisation policy only dealt with chronically ill companies or those with minimal market shares.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday dubbed the central government’s ambitious monetisation of public assets scheme as an attempt “to create monopolies” in critical areas that would cut down more job opportunities and adversely affect “small and medium business”.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram address a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. (PTI)

“We are not against privatisation. Our (UPA government’s) privatisation had a logic, and there was no privatisation of strategic industry such as the railways. All this privatisation is for creating monopolies. You know who owns ports and getting airports,” he said, alleging the Prime Minister is “selling the crown jewels of India”.

Gandhi, who has often criticised the government over helping a chosen few industrialists, added: “It took 70 years to build this massive infrastructure. People’s money was involved but now these are being sold to 3-4 people. As soon as these become monopolies, employment opportunities would be shrunk. Small business, medium business will not exist.”

On Monday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave details of a National Monetisation Pipeline to lease infrastructure assets of central government ministries and state-run companies to create ₹6 lakh crore fund to build new infrastructure.

Gandhi underlined how the United Progressive Alliance government’s privatisation policy only dealt with chronically ill companies or those with minimal market shares. “We didn’t allow creation of monopolies. But all this privatisation is for creating monopolies. You know who owns ports and getting airports,” said Gandhi.

He compared the government’s move with British Raj’s East India Company and said, “[Prime Minister Narendra] Modi believes large monopolies can save this country. You will see a dramatic increase in anger and violence. Modi is an instrument for doing some particular job for these people.”

While Sitharaman categorically ruled out any sale of land, her predecessor and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram termed the exercise as “a grand bargain sale” and quipped, “virtually, no public sector will exist after this.”

The former finance minister said there were no criteria and goals for the monetization scheme.

“We are going to raise ₹1.54 lakh crore every year—can this be a sole goal to sell assets? You don’t embark upon the exercise without consulting stakeholders. This is all hatched in secrecy in this wonderful organization called Niti Ayog,” Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram also mocked the government’s announcement on infrastructure pipeline and pointed that the government has announced the same special fund for infrastructure on three different occasions.

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress of “political hypocrisy” for questioning the government’s move and called the opposition party a “non-performing asset”.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the Congress itself is a “Non-Performing Asset” which has neither any value outside nor inside. The Congress is trying to become a “champion of confusion and contradiction, he said. “…while on one hand, the Modi government and the BJP are engaged in construction of the country, the Congress is involved in destruction of the country”, the Union minister said.

Union minister and Amethi MP, Smriti Irani said the Congress must first answer whether they were trying to sell the nation when the monetisation of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway for ₹8,000 crore was carried out. “Is he alleging that the Congress was sold off the expressway in Maharashtra? In 2008 an RFP was issued in context of the New Delhi railway station when the Congress was in power at the Centre…is he saying that a government whose chief was his mother (Sonia Gandhi) was making an attempt to sell the nation ? In 2006, The work related to the privatisation of the airport was carried out by a government whose chief was his mother. Is this his allegation that the government whose chief was his mother had sold off road, rail and airports,” Irani said.