BJP up in arms over Nalco

BHUBANESWAR: The BJP said on Sunday that it was opposed to the disinvestment of shares in the state-owned National Aluminium Company (Nalco).

“The BJP is opposed to the disinvestment of shares in Nalco and will resist the move,” party’s general secretary Vinay Katiyar said in a news conference here.

Mr Katiyar, who is here to attend the BJP state executive committee meeting, said the party would discuss the matter with chief minister Naveen Patnaik. “Nalco is a profit-making entity and has been doing well. Any move for disinvestment in the company will amount to injustice to the people of Orissa,” he said.

Mr Katiyar, however, faced an embarrassing situation, when reporters pointed out that the proposal for disinvestment in Nalco was also mooted when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister. The newsmen said the BJP had kept itself aloof from the agitation in which its ruling coalition partners took an active part.

Denying the newsmen’s contention, Mr Katiyar said a Union minister had put forward his own suggestion on disinvestment in Nalco but it could not be construed as a government decision.

“Vajpayeeji himself had said during a visit to Orissa that no disinvestment would take place in Nalco,” he said.

Senior party leaders, including state president Jual Oram and legislature party leader and rural development minister Biswabhushan Harichandan, who were present at the news conference, preferred to keep mum as Katiyar insisted that the NDA government had not made any move for Nalco disinvestment. Some reporters even pointed out that the BJP MP MA Kharavela Swain had openly demanded that there should be disinvestment in Nalco.

“I am clarifying now that the BJP is totally opposed to the disinvestment proposal,” Mr Katiyar said, adding that “if anyone was thinking on these lines, he is wrong”.

However, asked to clarify the BJP’s stand on the controversial Posco Steel project, the BJP leader fumbled for an answer before saying the state party leaders would brief the media about the matter later.

Mr Katiyar also hit out against the UPA government alleging that ever since it assumed power in Delhi, terrorism had begun to grow while prices of commodities sky-rocketed.

While there was enough production of wheat during the NDA regime leading to export of the commodity to 18 countries, the UPA government now finds the godowns empty though no drought or flood had hit the country.