5. THE PROPHECY OF PRESIDENT K.R. NARAYANAN

5

Mr. K.R. NARAYANAN, President of India.

      Now some attempts were made through suitable persons to get the support of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, President of the Congress party, for deleting the word “Socialism” from the Preamble of the Constitution of India.

         As she did not condescend to the above idea, Mr. Arun Shourie, Union Minister for Disinvestments, observed that consensus - meaning two third majorities - was difficult to achieve and that was the reason why he did not search for it.

        Thus, the Government could not amend the Constitution of India to make the policy of privatization a legal one.  

           In the meantime, the Supreme Court stayed the   ITDC privatization case that had been going on in the High Court, Chennai. The stay was based on the BALCO judgment. The premonition that the Supreme Court was a co-conspirator to remove public assets became apparent.

        According to The Hindu dated 20-12-2001, the Minister suggested closer interaction between the industry, and the judiciary to create a better understanding. Thus The Hindu wanted the employees to submit themselves to the Supreme Court.

        In this connection, it must be noted that on 19 December 2001, Government short-listed three bidders – Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the IPCL Employee’s Federation, for selling the Indian Petrochemical Corporation Limited (IPCL). For this, the Government sought certain clarifications from the IPCL Employees Federation.

          Here, the IOC was prevented from buying the IPCL because it was a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). The Government said that such an act would defeat the purpose of privatization. Later, the IPCL –for all practical purposes –was sold to the sole bidder – the RIL .

            Unveiling a statue of the “Common Man” at Pune on December 19, 2001 Mr. K.R. Narayanan, His Excellency the President of India,  said that there were many people like the “Common Man” in India and those people would definitely save India. Presumably keeping this writer in mind, the President asked the Government to think of the common man and pave way for getting a good Government.

          It is clear that the President saw the letters of this writer in the light of the Constitution of India. He understood the designs of the Government. But for his intervention, a lot of PSUs would have gone into the hands of the top ten industrialists.

         

          The renegotiation by the BSNL with the vendors –Lucent, Motorola and Ericsson- brought down the total cost to Re. 2044 crore from Re.2230.92. Thus, the Government gained Re. 187 crore. The New Indian Express reported this on 21 December 2001.It must be noted that the first point in the first letter addressed to Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, was to abolish the policy of bulk buying.

          Now, all the State Governments had been plunging into a financial crisis. The Government of Tamil Nadu state issued orders to stop the payment of salaries to the teachers of the aided schools and asked the managements to collect fee from the students to pay salary to the teachers.

      The Treasuries, in fact, returned the bill for December 2001 of several private aided schools for want of orders from the Government.

       Now, it became apparent, that there was no meaning in opposing privatization without giving some more concrete suggestions to mop up revenue.

                 Therefore, a few suggestions were given to Mr. A.B. Vajpayee on 21 December 2001. The same letter was addressed to the President of India, important Chief Ministers and the learned judges of the Supreme Court. This was letter No.4. The letter follows.

 From

V.SABARIMUTHU,

Thattankonam,

Vellicode, Mulagumoodu. P. O. 629167.

  To

Mr. A.B. Vajpayee

Prime Minister of India

Parliament House, New Delhi.

         

Your Excellency,

In order to control the economic deprivation of the rural masses, to raise the much-needed revenue by about Re. 10, 000/-crore per state per year and to protect the federal structure of the Constitution of India, kindly consider the question of:

1. Permitting the State Governments to realize transaction charge.

                   Every money transaction must yield an income to the State Governments as well as to the banks. The idea is to take money from the place where there is money. Thus, for all payments and withdrawals up to Re. 10,000/- the customer must pay Re. 5/- to the State Government and Re. 5/-, (total Rs. 10/-) to the Financial Institution (FI). He must pay Re. 10/- for every additional Re. 10,000/-. The amount collected must be remitted to the state treasury every month and must be reported to the competent authority-preferably to an officer not below the rank of a Tahsildar- in the District.

                   At present there is no income through the above source to the banks, FIs, State Governments or Central Government.

 2. Permitting the State Governments to realize 1% interest on all credits and deposits.

         Every bank and financial institution must remit this amount to the competent authority every month. They must submit a monthly report for the amount kept as deposit and for the amount given as credit. They must keep the surplus funds in the treasury. Interest need not be given to the customers for saving bank accounts but I% interest must be given to the State Governments.

3. Permitting the State Governments to realize income from service charges.

                State Governments must be permitted to realize at least 10% of all service charges such as folio charges, commissions, processing fee, collection charges, courier charges, telephone charges. The amount must be remitted in the treasury every month and a report submitted to the competent authority.

                                                                            

4. Permitting the State Government to raise money during share transfers

            The State Government must get 5% of the net asset value of the shares during its transfer. Similarly, the document fee for property sale must be reduced to 5% of the market value.

5. Permitting the State Governments to realize income from insurance premium.

          Insurance companies other than the LIC of India must remit up to 50% of the premium amount to the State exchequer. The state that provides police protection and customers is entitled for this

6. Giving fillip to the industries, farmers and coolies.

            Those who use indigenous technology must be encouraged to spend more for research. Entrepreneurs and farmers must be given loan at interest rate on par with maximum deposit rates if they pledge their properties. The companies that run financial companies must be forbidden from taking loan from any bank to prevent sub-lending. They must be prevented from charging exorbitant interest because some financiers such as those who give loan for buying vehicles extract as high as 50% interest. For all jewel loans, the interest rates must not be above the maximum deposit rates.

7.                 Strengthening co-operative banks.

            Formers should not be exploited by asking them to have share capital or thrift deposit in the co-operative banks. They should not be forced to buy manure while availing themselves of the loan.

                  

8.Giving educational loans to first generation students.

           All students studying in professional colleges must be given at least Re. 25, 000/-per year through the Principals if their parents are not degree holders.

9.Extending reservation norms to Stock Exchanges and private sector undertakings.

10. Seeking the co-operation of one and all.

            Coolies in the rural areas do not get gob for even two days per week.  Therefore, everybody must work with single-minded devotion to change this scenario.

      Bulk purchasing, selling and bargaining must be avoided at all higher levels so that the multinational corporations would come down to the District level and compete with one another to sell their products.

      The courts should not be cited as the reason for the breakdown of the Constitution or for the plight of the people and everybody must come out with concrete suggestions for the progress of the nation.

Vellicode,                                                                                      Yours faithfully,

21-12-2001

             In the mean time - on 20 January 2002 - The Hindu reported that Mr. Dick Cheney, the Vice President of the USA, intervened with India on behalf of Enron Corporation to make the best out of the Dabhol power project.

          The two-day International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan was held in Japan. The conference started on 21 January 2002. Mr. Arun Shourie attended the conference. He agreed to give   $100 million to Afghanistan as aid.  Mr. Arun Shourie might have met the Japanese promoter of Maruthi at Japan. However, the people knew nothing, as the newspapers did not disclose anything.

          In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court on 20 January 2002 held that the Government had the power to refuse or grant permission for the closure of the industrial establishment after making an enquiry into the grounds of closure.

      On 21 January 2002, Justice V.N.Khare and Justice Ashok Bhan held that the chairman of an industry couldn’t act both as a disciplinary authority and as appellate authority because such a dual function is not permissible on account of established rule against bias.

          Referring to the Enron promoted Dabhol Power Company, Mr. Adarsh Kishore, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs said that the tariffs agreed for off take of power on take or pay basis were unreasonable and admitted that the then Government committed a mistake. He added that India learned its lessons on foreign investments.          

          The New Indian Express on December 27, 2001 said that the 17% shares held by the Government in Maruthi would be disinvested leaving the Government with 51% equity. The paper reported the statement of Mr. Manohar Joshi that his Department had referred 20 PSUs for privatization.

      However, the Prime Minister, presumably referring to the letters of this writer said - on his birthday on 25 December 2001 - that the beauty of India was that whenever the country was faced with a crisis people became one forgetting their differences.