Narasimha Rao flays sale of Indian state-run firms
NEW DELHI, Jan 23: Former Indian prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, who initiated radical free-market reforms nine years ago, has strongly opposed the sale of state-owned companies to foreign investors, reports AFP.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Rao as saying late yesterday that the proposed sale of public sector companies by the government was "detrimental to the overall interests of the country.
"The nation is now on the verge of being deprived of its fully owned infrastructure, assiduously built up over this difficult half century," he was quoted as saying in the southern city of Hyderabad.
"Whatever the hype, this is how the citizen understands the implications of this decision."
Rao, a member of the main opposition Congress party, launched India's economic reforms after becoming prime minister in 1991. He quite office in 1996 after leading the Congress to a rout in elections.
The liberalisation overturned four decades of close-door economy.
Rao told a select audience that when he ruled India, he made it clear to prospective investors not to eye the government-owned public sector companies, but instead to set up new industries.
He said he was in favour of partly privatising Indian public sector companies notorious for inefficiency and corruption, but opposed to selling them off completely.
"Is it not a most unfortunate irony that our government should be thinking of selling off Air India?" he asked. "Can anyone think of the Singapore Airlines being put up for outright sale.
"I simply cannot think of India selling off her national carrier, which carries the national flag.
"If you cannot part with an inch of the country's land, how can you sell off the country's property?"
Rao said liberalisation did not mean "total privatisation, although it did mean a vast enlargement of private enterprise.:
He said in the evolution of the liberalisation process, "a time will come when a decision would possibly be taken with the basic pattern of the economy."
Until then the public sector as a whole will have to remain, with whatever effort, to serve the country while improving itself."
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