Fernandes suggested mid-term review of sell-off policy

NEW DELHI: Dismissing description of his suggestion for a mid-term appraisal of the on-going disinvestment process as a "war within the Government", Defence Minister George Fernandes today said all that he had asked was whether a course-correction was needed.
Declaring that he was not opposed to the reform process, he told a FICCI seminar here that he had made the suggestion for a mid-term appraisal to ensure that the process went in the right direction.
"We need to take a mid-term review and find out if any corrections are called for," Fernandes said in his first remarks after the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment deferred disinvestment in strategic sectors.
He said it was unfortunate that his suggestion was termed as "war within the Government or Cabinet".
Fernandes had sought constitution of a small group of ministers to discuss differences over disinvestment policy amidst reports that he is unhappy over the disinvestment relating to PSUs like HPCL and BPCL.