6. AVERTING A CRISIS

6

PRIVATIZATION

AND

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

          On January 1, 2002 one Mr. Mervin Alexander, Chief Vigilance Officer, Cochin shipyard said in The Hindu that Indian Penal Code contained provisions for forcing public servants to do their duty under sections 166 and 167. He quoted from the French writer, Victor Hugo “ there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. He said that people make or mar nations and that India was ranked 72 out of 91 countries listed in the order from the least corrupt. He, however, added that the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVC) does not reveal the names of the complainants to ensure his/her security. This was the first veiled threat against this writer.

          Coming back, as the Supreme Court remained unmoved for the first point in letter No.3 and the last point in letter No.4, it became clear that the Supreme Court defied the Constitution of India in the BALCO judgment. Obviously, it was a co-conspirator to convert public assets into private assets.   

       Therefore, the following letter No.5,  was sent to the Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, Mr. K.R. Narayanan, President of India besides 18 learned judges of the Supreme Court on 3 January 2002.     

From

          V. SABARIMUTHU

  Thattankonam,

 Vellicode

 Mulagumoodu P.O. PIN: 629167.

To

          Mr. A.B. Vajpayee

Prime Minister of India

                    New Delhi.

Your Excellency,

          Kindly consider the question of examining the following points with regard to the Policy of Privatization vis-à-vis the Constitution of India.

1.                 The decision to introduce the word ‘socialistic’ in the Preamble of the Constitution of India was a well thought out one. After noticing the undercurrent, the word was carefully included to pre-empt the incumbent Governments from deviating from socialistic principles using a simple majority in the Parliament. Till the time of this amendment, the Constitution was biased in favour of capitalism

2.Due to the above amendment, the Council of Ministers and the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts - in their official capacities - shall not do anything to offend or destroy socialism lest they would be incurring disqualification as such a stand would be a violation of the oath taken by them. Any deviation from Democracy, Secularism,  Socialism and Sovereignty by them will be deemed as total defiance of the Constitution entailing automatic disqualification. Oath should not have been administered to Minister for Disinvestments. The Ministry of Disinvestments stands for the destruction of the Constitution and hence it must cease to exist.  The Preamble - unlike the Basic Structure of the Constitution - is not a vague one to leave it to the interpretation of the Supreme Court.

3.          The Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are governed by reservation norms. Once privatized, the common man will lose this benefit. Further, once a few people from one or two states - using ill-gotten funds, bank funds or public funds - purchase the PSUs, the industry would lose its all India character and the employment opportunities of the people from many regions would be affected. It is against the federal structure of the Constitution.

4.      The vested interests have fielded a syndicate of editors, writers and reporters to keep the mind and tongue of the people under ignorance and they propagate the view that the Government would gain by privatizing the PSUs. They seek to bring down those above the poverty line to a state below the poverty line. 

5.      Despite the best efforts to kill the PSUs, and in spite of all the commissions the system permits, not even one PSU in India has gone the ‘enron way’. If the Private Sector Undertaking goes the ‘enron way’ there will be no mourners except the employees and the poor investors. The majority share holder would slash hundreds of thousands of crore in foreign banks and reappear in another form. In fact, those who raised thousands of crore through public issues survive without spending even 10% of the collected amount. The Government and the CBI must have better knowledge about this matter. 

6.           There is no practical meaning to liberalization, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). Indian industry had been liberalized long before to the detriment of indigenous technology. Just as the PSUs are handed over to the strategic partners, the licenses had been granted to some individuals to import technology, even obsolete technology. Lylend, Benz, Ambassador, Fiat, and Maruti are all foreign in origin. Most of the shopping items we see in the shops belong to Lever of England although there are Indian prefixes in their names. Money kept abroad by Indian brokers and manipulators reappear in India as FDIs and FIIs. The Government, the Bombay Stock Exchange and the CBI know about this matter better. 

7. A little accountability that exists in the PSUs is lacking in the Private Sector Undertakings. Thus,  when the former Chief of the Nishkalf- a subsidiary of the TATA Finance-went away with Re. 800 crore, it was cited as a case of bad finance in private sector. The fact that India became poorer to that extent was not noticed by anybody.

8.      Indians are hard working in nature. That is why our toiling hands in the form of NRIs flood our banks with money every day. They are property minded and ownership minded also. They consider the PSUs as their own property and alienating them when there is no dearth of funds in banks hurts them just as it hurts the Constitution.

9.       The situation prevailing now in India could be compared to the one that existed in France before the French Revolution or to the condition that is prevailing in Argentina. Banks are flooded with money. Money is siphoned off for sub-lending, brokering and for big buying but there is no money in the hands of the common man. Our javans are not paid immediately after recruitment and those who have not received regular salary for even one month are deployed to border areas. One State Government in early December 2001 decided to stop payment of regular monthly salary to the teachers of aided schools and the bill for December 2001 was returned by the treasury. However, the Government reversed its stand in the last week of December. IT refunds are not given. No LTC. The withdrawals were denied by the UTI. Employees are denied withdrawals from the PF. Bonus denied. Earned leave encashment denied. Many ration items denied. No jobs for the educated. No work for coolies. High interest rates cripple the people. Some kill others. Some steal. Some starve. Some suffer in silence. Some commit suicide. Even if the courts give relief, the state governments cannot do anything because there is no money in the treasury. It is our duty to avert a major humiliating crisis.

10.            Constituting the benches to take out the worst possible judgment is very common.  But the Ministers and the judges becoming accomplices to break the Constitution from within are very rare indeed. In such a situation the Chief Justice can constitute a larger bench to rectify the error or the President of India can demand the opinion of a larger bench. Therefore, the judgment on BALCO must be annulled and the status quo ante of all privatized PSUs restored forthwith to convey the impression that our Constitution despite deadly blows and severe set backs would survive.

Vellicode,                                                                                                        3-1-2002

                                                                             Yours faithfully,

                                                                                                                                                                                                             (V.SABARIMUTHU).

The Deputy Secretary (CM) under direction from the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh state acknowledged the above letters. The acknowledgement letter clearly mentioned the economic deprivation of the rural masses and the federal structure of the Constitution.