PM settles selloff row, wins over George

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister AB Vajpayee has scored a major breakthrough in his efforts to clear the strategic sale of HPCL and BPCL with Defence Minister George Fernandes coming around to accept an old compromise formula that would entail permission to ONGC and Gail to participate in the bidding as junior partners to private players, Indian or foreign.
Mr Fernandes has conveyed his consent to the proposal, which he had cold-shouldered at the September 7 meeting of the CCD, to the Prime Minister and the latter looks set to go ahead with the strategic sale even if petroleum minister Ram Naik refuses to play ball.
A strong opinion in the PMO is that the PM can do without convening a meeting of the CCD since the strategic sale had been cleared in February itself. And if the viewpoint prevails, the decision can come as early as within next 48 hours, before Mr Vajpayee leaves for a foreign trip on Monday.
The proposal of letting ONGC and Gail in the bidding process was mooted by disinvestment minister Arun Shourie at the last meeting of the CCD. It was aimed at neutralising those who cited fears of public monopoly being replaced by private monopoly to oppose the sale of HPCL and BPCL.
Though it represented a climbdown from the earlier position to bench PSUs, it could find support only from Mr Vajpayee and finance minister Jaswant Singh. Mr Fernandes remained non-committal despite a specific plea from the finance minister.
Clearly, the PM’s October 2 advocacy of disinvestment has enhanced the receptivity of the formula which represents rejection of the IPO route championed by Mr Naik, HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi and, till yesterday, by Mr Fernandes.
Mr Vajpayee, who looks set to lob more shells at tomorrow’s Planning Commission meeting, is keen to clinch the issue and dispel doubts that the feud within his government might have shoved disinvestment on the policy back burner.
In the changed climate, the PM may not have to contend with too many obstacles as even the BJP leadership has shaken off its ambivalence to second the October 2 position of the Prime Minister.
BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu has followed up his pro-disinvestment Pondicherry statement by personally lobbying with the ministers, especially those arrayed against the disinvestment department.
Even Mr L K Advani, whose neutrality on September 7 was one of the reasons why the tie couldn’t be broken, is likely to lean on the obstructionists to push the HPCL-BPCL deal through.
The success of the PM will owe in no small measure to BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley. Among the first to sense the need for the party to send out a strong pro-reforms message, Mr Jaitley is believed to have played a crucial role in persuading Mr Fernandes.
The pro-disinvestment activism has also to do with the growing suspicion that the policy feud could only be a disguise to challenge the authority of the PM.