Opinion - Editorials   

A flawed process

The absence of a consensus-building process within the United Progressive Alliance is evident from the manner in which the decision to divest 10 per cent stake in the profit-making Neyveli Lignite Corporation was taken by the Central Government. Although important constituents of the UPA, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Pattali Makkal Katchi, besides the Left parties that support the Government from the outside, are opposed to such divestment, the Union Cabinet went ahead with the proposal. The decision seemed like a testing of waters, an attempt to gauge the mood of the labour unions; however, the Government could not but have seen the storm of protest coming. True, the DMK and the PMK, which are represented in the Cabinet, cannot distance themselves from the divestment decision, but following the strong reaction of the unions, these parties have come out openly against it. With the 19,000 employees apprehensive about their future, the political stakes are high. Already, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is on the warpath, and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had to repeatedly raise the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In keeping with the suggestion of Mr. Karunanidhi, the Centre announced preferential allotment of shares to the NLC staff. This obviously did not address the labour unions' fundamental opposition to the divestment itself, and they have gone ahead with their strike plan. Finding that the offer of shares had no takers among the employees, the Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to drop the proposal completely, as he had demanded originally.

The divestment is clearly a contravention of the National Common Minimum Programme adopted by the UPA and the Left parties in which there is a commitment that generally, profit-making companies would not be privatised. According to the NCMP, all privatisations would be considered on a transparent and consultative case-by-case basis. That this was not done in the case of the divestment in the NLC is obvious. The unions, which had warded off a similar threat of divestment during the National Democratic Alliance regime in 2002, were kept out of the picture this time too. Now with the NLC plants virtually shut down following the strike by the employees, the country is needlessly deprived of a source of cheap power. The Rs.1,100 crore proposed to be mobilised through the divestment is to go into the National Investment Fund for implementing social sector schemes and reviving sick public sector units, but the Government cannot hope to win the support of the unions for this cause without prior consultation. The way out of the crisis is to rescind the divestment decision and take the employees into confidence. Without a transparent decision-making process, even well-intentioned moves might appear suspect, not to speak of hastily launched trial balloons.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

A flawed process
The jatropha opportunity
Avoiding an unequal social bargain
Meeting ground in the mountains
A "peacekeeping" mission goes wrong
Only a U.N.-led process can halt the Iraq catastrophe
Return of mining raises hope in Congo
Corrections and clarifications
Mumbai floods
NLC disinvestment
The agrarian crisis
Welcome move
On legal education
World Cup football

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu