Privatisation Of National Assets: Sena Slams Centre

Shiv Sena on Thursday raised questions over the credibility of Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal’s assurance in Lok Sabha that Indian Railways will never be privatised while slamming the Centre for its pro-privatisation policies. With BJP’s ally Shiv Sena targeting Centre amidst huge uproar in AP over the privatisation of Vizag Steel Plant, this issue gained significance.

“Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said in Parliament that Railways is the property of the country. It will not be privatised at all. At the same time, another Union Minister Prakash Javadekar assured that the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) would not be privatised. Is there such an atmosphere in the country today that their assurances given by these two Ministers of the Centre can be believed?” read an editorial in Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are doing the exact opposite of what Goyal or Javadekar are saying. Not only the country’s major ports and airports but nationalised banks also have started to be privatised. The Modi government’s only policy is to hand over Public sector undertakings to investors,” it added. Further criticising the Centre’s pro-privatisation policies, the editorial said that public property was not built with the sweat of investors. But the Modi government was selling these national assets. These assets such as airports, seaports now have boards of industrialists.

“Therefore, no matter how seriously the Ministers may be saying, the sword of privatization is still hanging on the railways and insurance companies,” the editorial added. It further said if the government will not do business, then why should you run the government and why do you present a budget? The Ministries of Industry, Trade, Commerce should be put under lock.