The attack on the PSUs has been sharpened after the assembly elections. The UPA Government which could not divest any PSU during its first term due to the strong opposition of the Left Parties, without the support of which it could not continue in power and which could only start with some disinvestments only during its second tenure till now, has been emboldened by the recent elections to start the sale of family silver – the privatisation of the central PSEs.
It has started with the Cabinet taking a decision on 19th May to sell the Scooters India Limited which is in loss, of course due to the anti-PSU policy of the government. Instead of trying to make it financially viable, the Government has decided to sell to help the private companies in the sector. Scooters India Limited was started in 1972 and was producing three wheelers till the eighties in competition with the private companies.
There is no doubt that it will be sold cheap as in the case of Balco, CMC, Hindustan Zinc, HTL, IPCL, Jessop & company and VSNL which were privatised during the NDA regime.
The Trade Unions and the people of the country have to move immediately to ensure that this process of privatisation is stopped forthwith. Otherwise, there will be no PSUs left within some 10 to 15 years. The slogan of the NDA government that ‘Business is not the business of the Government’ will be fully implemented.