Disinvestment: PM asks Advani to rein in Parivar

Amid mounting anxiety that the disinvestment controversy could derail the economic reforms process, PM Vajpayee has sought Deputy PM L.K. Ad...

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Amid mounting anxiety that the disinvestment controversy could derail the economic reforms process, PM Vajpayee has sought Deputy PM L.K. Advani’s help in tackling the RSS, particularly the Swadeshi Jagran Manch which has announced an agitation programme against the Government’s economic policies.

The move is an outcome of Thursday night’s informal pow-wow at PM’s residence after the Cabinet deferred a decision to raise the FDI ceiling in the insurance, telecom and civil aviation sectors.

As a start, the DyPM was to use his visit to Orissa to sound out Chief Minister and BJD chief Navin Patnaik. The Orissa unit of the BJD and Samata Party have called a bandh to oppose the disinvestment of NALCO. Coal and Mines Minister Uma Bharati put another spoke in the wheel yesterday with a call for a debate on the twin issues of disinvestment and FDI.

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Sources said the overwhelming view at Thursday’s meeting was that the process of economic liberalisation should continue. The meeting was attended by Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik. While these ministers may have endorsed economic reforms in principle, the storm that has been whipped up over divesting government stake in the oil sector has forced the Centre to go slow for the moment.

There appear to be three stages to the damage control exercise. The first is to get ministers to stop airing their differences in public. The next step is to quieten NDA allies which are using the controversy to settle their own political scores. Finally, Advani will have to get down to tackling the RSS.

The Government is relying on Advani’s rapport with SJM convenor S. Gurumurthy. Last time Advani brought RSS around was in 1998-99 when the Centre was poised to decide on the privatisation of the insurance sector. The RSS groups held a demonstration outside Parliament at which Dattopant Thengdi called PM a ‘‘traitor’’. The BJP too jumped onto the bandwagon with then BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre issuing a statement against economic reforms. It took several months of manouvering by Advani to bring temperatures down. As a result, the ceiling for FDI in insurance was capped at 26 per cent.