Half Marx, more Deng in Bengal

NEW DELHI: The Congress Party called it ‘disinvestment’, the BJP calls it privatisation. The Marxist government of West Bengal has come up with a tongue-twisting alternative: “joint venture transformation through induction of strategic partners�.
No, it is not trying to trap investors. In advertisements inviting expressions of interest for takeovers of state-run corporations, the West Bengal government said categorically that it intends to allow the “transfer of equity stake ranging from 51% to 74% with management control�. So, this is clear-cut privatisation, and not mere disinvestment of a minority stake, in the style of Narasimha Rao. But, understandably, the Marxist government finds it hard to use the word privatisation. Hence its invention of the term “joint venture transformation�.
Some will be reminded of the way Deng Xiaoping called his reforms “market socialism� to make them sound less radical. Like Deng, the West Bengal government has decided that it does not matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches the mice. Note also that the financial advisor to the privatisation is not a Bengali or even an Indian company, but the multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers. You can almost hear Deng cheering.
The primary objective, said the government advertisement, is “to ensure the maximum utilisation of the industrial assets and workforces of these enterprises�. Yet this does not mean that buyers will necessarily have to keep all surplus workers. The government “is open to considering the requisite extent of manpower restructuring and waiver of outstanding financial liabilities as may be necessary for ensuring their sustainable viability�.
Traditional Marxists will weep. They will weep most of all because one of the companies being privatised goes by the remarkable name of Engel India. Fortunately, no company called Marx India is up for sale. The other companies offered for “joint venture transformation� are The Shalimar Works, National Iron and Steel, West Bengal Chemical Industries, three units of Lily Biscuit, Carter Pooler Engineering, Neo Pipes, Krishna Glass and Apollo Zipper.
In many cases the interest liability exceeded the annual loss, suggesting that these companies can be revived after financial restructuring.