Prime Minister Modi has stated at Washington at the end of his US tour that the “Government has no business to be in business”.

It is not a new slogan. The Bajpai Government earlier used the same slogan in a different way stating that ” Business is not the business of the government.” And then government started privatising PSUs one after another like BALCO, ITC Hotels and so on.

But the original slogan have another owner. It is the World Bank, which mooted the slogan. Both NDA and UPA governments were only repeating what the World Bank has told.

The PSUs have always been a thorn in the eyes of the private sector and the world financial institutions, since they put barriers in the maximisation of profits by the MNCs and big business. The Modi Government wants to remove this barrier by privatising the PSUs. Since the NDA government has got brutal majority, it feels that it can do this easily.

But the democratic forces will not allow such a thing to happen. The Trade unions in the country will also not allow such demolition of PSUs. The workers have to be vigilant and prepared for united struggles to save the PSUs.