8. PLOT BEHIND THE SALE OF THE VSNL International Long Distance for RE.25 CRORE

 8

PLOT AFTER PLOT

       On 4 February 2002, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister, declared that the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) were the pillars of the economy. He added and that an impression was being created in the name of globalization that the PSUs had lost their importance, and that the Government had wanted to get rid of them.

      In contrast to his words, a sea change occurred in the policy of the Government on the same day.

          Thus, on 5 February 2002, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestments, (CCD), and it decided to sell 25% equity in the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) to Panatone, a company of Tata Group.

       The CCD also decided to sell Indo Burma Petroleum (IBP) along with its management control to Indian oil Corporation (IOC) Limited, another PSU. This was done to dilute the seriousness of the matter. Earlier, the Union Government had said that a PSU could not buy another PSU.

        Further, the CCD decided to sell four hotels of the Indian Tourism Development Corporation, (ITDC), to four private bidders.

       The Union Cabinet on the same day, approved a voluntary retirement scheme for permanent Government employees rendered surplus as announced in the budget.

          The industrialists were very happy with the decision.

       In fact, The Hindu described the sale as a “big step” forward through its editorial dated Feb 7, 2002. It hinted that the Reliance would bid for the HPCL and the BPCL.

       On the same day, The New Indian Express described the privatization as a silver lining as the Government could sell the VSNL without a murmur of protest from the opposition parties. Obviously, the industrialist chasing the VSNL was behind the media.

          There was a great plot because the money for buying the VSNL had been given through the public sector Bank of India.

        The above paper disclosed, “One secretary decided to raise the issue of why IOC should be allowed to bid at all (as it was a PSU)”. The editorial deplored that the Cabinet did not take any decision to cut the subsidies on kerosene and the LPC. The way in which the media diverted the attention of the people could be gauged.

          The spokesperson of the Congress (I), Mr. Jaipal Reddy, said that his party was opposed to selling profit taking industries.                 

        The Communist Party of India (CPI-M) said that the decision to sell the PSUs was a mockery of the pronouncement of Mr. A.B. Vajpayee - on the penultimate day of disinvestments - that the Government was not for liquidating the PSUs.

        The Communist Party of India, (CPI), said that the decision would undermine the economic sovereignty of the nation. In fine, the Left parties described the decision as “economic terrorism”.

          Clearly, the will of the Prime Minister was defeated by the sinister will of the industrialists. 

          In contrast, Mr. Subramonia Swamy congratulated Mr. Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestments, for maintaining the integrity of the tender process in the disinvestments of the IBP and the VSNL. He said that the Indian democracy would be strengthened by the failure of the Reliance Industries to subvert the tender bid and arm-twist the Government to favour them. His claim was that there was no cartel formation. When the licenses for telecom were given to the RIL he did not utter a word. The vicious arguments to privatize the PSUs could be discerned.

          In the meantime, the newspapers - on 8 February 2002 - reported that according to “Moody’s” - the international credit rating agency - India was heading towards a debt trap due to the inability of the Government to rein in its huge public sector deficit. It said that the rising debt service burden was consuming an overwhelming share of the resources. It said that the policy of depending on non-resident capital to finance account gap was not sustainable.

       The above arguments were to instill fear in the mind of the people about the future of India.

          In a crucial step, the Unit Trust of India, (UTI) - for the first time -decided to delegate certain powers to individual fund managers. The UTI decided to measure the performance of the managers using two yardsticks: performance vis-à-vis a bench mark like Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30 share sensitive index, and second the performance of the fund vis-à-vis its peers.

          There was a scheme behind the sale of the VSNL. But the Delhi correspondent of The New Indian Express in a major article said that the sale of the VSNL and the IBP limited passed off without much political noise. According to him, the Left parties kept quiet and the Congress had nothing to say. Finally, he challenged Mr. Arun Shourie to sell the nationalized banks. The article ended with the message that the sale of the banks would be not only a critical test but also a most welcome one. How the media directed attention precisely to wrong things could be gauged.

          However, this work alone was standing in the way of privatization.

          Unable to tolerate this work, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee - on 10 February 2002 - all on a sudden said that there was a conspiracy to disintegrate the country. He said this because he was deeply involved in hatching conspiracy after conspiracy.

      On 13 February 2002, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu charged the opposition parties with indulging in “backroom activities” to destabilize the Government. This, again, reflected the mind of the conspirators.

          On 13 February 2002, the Government identified Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL), Rail India Technical and Economic Services and Project and Equipment Corporation, Maruthi Udyog Limited (MUL), Indian Petro Chemical Limited (IPCL), Jessop Engineering and Hindustan Zinc Limited for disinvestments before March 2002.

          On 14 February 2002, the CCD cleared the sale of 74 per cent Government equity in the loss making Public Sector Enterprise, Pradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) to Zuari Agro Chemicals and Maroc Phosphore of Moroco. The pretext of Mr. Arun Shourie was that the PPL had eroded its net worth completely and it had a negative net worth of Re. 100 crore apart from an accumulated deft of Re.1140 crore.

          The Treasury of the Government of Kerala became empty on 13 February 2002. Following a SoS sent by Mr. A.K. Antony,  Chief Minister of Kerala, the Union Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, prevailed upon the LIC, a PSU, to release a loan of Re. 200/- crore to Kerala and the LIC obliged. However, some private companies obtained huge amount as loan without any difficulty.

          The Hindu - on 15 February 2002 - published an article by Justice Krishna Iyer, former judge of the Supreme Court, in its centre page. In that article he mentioned the Preamble that culminated in the creative expression “resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic”. Apparently, The Hindu extracted that article from him, as it was aware of the existence of these letters. Neither did Justice Krishna Iyer mention this in his letter nor did he bother to know the reason for approaching him for various articles. He did not pursue his matter either.

          Mr. Vajpayee now said that any talk of socialism was out of sync with the changing times, which was governed by open market economy. “The Hindu” on 20 February 2002 reported this. The media simply suppressed all views against privatization.

          “The Hindu” on 24 February 2002- through Ms. Susma Ramachandran- demanded the Minister for Finance to create an environment to the industry to compete with global giants. For this, the paper wanted quick decision on labour and moving ahead quickly on public sector disinvestments.

          On 25 February 2002, the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) signed license agreement with the Department of Telecom (DoT) for international long distance services. The RIL paid Re. 25 crore-entry fee besides Re.25 crore- as bank guarantee. One month earlier, it had obtained license for domestic long distance services. Thus there were two very big plots.

       Thus the RIL took the scare natural resource worth Re. several thousand crore practically free of cost. In fact, its real value cannot be estimated easily.

          The RIL dispersed its huge profit all over the world.

In order to buy five cent of land, one must pay 10 percent document charge. In order to buy this natural asset, the RIL did not pay even the registration fee. In fine, the government did not follow any law to give this.

The real players involved in the above plan were not known. Apparently,  Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, Mr. L.K. Advani, Home Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, Finance Minister, and Mr. Arun Shourie were directly involved in this scheme although all Union Ministers were equally  responsible.

Mr. K.R. Narayanan, President of India, was highly critical of the working of the Government. But he could not realize the gravity of the manipulations. He should have demanded the Supreme Court to tell the reason why all Union Ministers should not be prosecuted.

If the Supreme Court had ordered an enquiry, the CBI would have unearthed the plots and all Union Ministers and the industrialists would have been charge-sheeted by the CBI. But the Supreme Court functioned as a co-conspirator. 

The money involved was so big that the CBI had no courage to go near anyone on its own.

Latter – in 2011- for an infinitesimally smaller crime Mr. A.Raja, a former Union minister, was sent to Tihar jail. Some shareholders of some small companies were also sent to the same jail because the Supreme Court saw a conspiracy. 

          On 28 February 2005, the Officer on Special Duty, Chief Minister’s Office, Punjab, referred the letters of this writer to the Principal Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Industries and Commerce to take necessary action. A copy of the letter was forwarded to this writer. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri A.K.Antony  also acknowledged a letter.

          In the budget for 2002-2003, there was additional taxation for about Re. 30,000 crore. Most of the revenue was through service charges suggested by this writer.

      Further, full convertibility was granted to the NRIs, and there was a proposal to give loan to the rural people at 2% above the maximum deposit rate. The latter proposal was consistent with the proposal of this writer.

       With regard to privatization, Mr. Yashwant Sinha said that disinvestments in another six companies and the remaining hotels of the HCI and the ITDC would be completed in 2002-2003. Later, he hoped that the reform process was not held hostage to political process and compared it to crossing the forest in the darkness of night. According to him, if the process were stopped in the midway, the tiger would eat them! If that happened he said that, he would plead with the political parties, Parliament and Government as the reform process was still incomplete.

          The Hindu on the next day (1-3-2002) said through a Mr. Gail Omvedt that the government should not be running enterprises such as hotels, airlines, bakeries and the industries like the BALCO. The indirect message was that all the PSUs and the mineral wealth of India must be handed over to the master of The Hindu.

          On March 2, 2002, Mr. Vedprakash Goyal, Minister for Shipping, told newspersons that out of 12 parties who submitted their expression of interest (EoI) for the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), one decided to pull out while another had been disqualified. Great Eastern Shipping Company, Malaysian International Shipping Corporation and Videocon International had expressed their interest in the SCI.

          On the same day, the letter No.7 that disclosed the manipulation of Tata was sent to the President of India and the Prime Minister of India, the learned judges of the Supreme Court and the Director of the CBI by post. The letter might have reached Delhi within three days.

Now a grave situation prevailed. The media syndicate projected the name of Mr. P.C. Alexander for the post of President of India because the then President was not amenable for manipulations. The industrialists distilled his name for the top post.

It appeared that a sinister design was behind the proposal. This writer considered it as a plot but felt very helpless.

However, this writer just pointed out the plight of the people to all the important political leaders. The letter did wonders as it changed the perception of the leaders.

The letter proved that the leaders have an unquenchable thirst for the good. Perhaps the mind of the Universe has its own way of solving the problems.

The apprehension of this writer proved correct when Mr. P.C. Alexander himself in an interview to the DD in September 2004 disclosed that he had been informed about the decision of the NDA long before the discussion started in the media. The way in which the industrialists build India using the media could be gauged.

  The important letter No.7 sent on 2 March 2002 follows.

From

          V. SABARIMUTHU,

          Thattankonam,Vellicode,

Mulagumoodu P.O. 629167.

To

          Mr. K.R. Narayanan   

          His Excellency the President of India,

          Presidential Palace, New Delhi.

Your Excellency,

                   Kindly consider the following DEMANDS OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

1.       The President of India must respect the Constitution of India. If the present President of India fails to protect the Constitution, the plight of the people when a representative of the industrialists occupies Presidential palace shall be envisaged.

           When the common man points out that the Policy of Privatization is opposed to Socialism, the President must consider it in the proper perspective, hear the views of the constitutional experts, filter them and take a correct stand. Absence of a reply in this regard conveys the impression that all those who facilitated privatization of the BALCO, VSNL, and other PSUs no longer enjoy the pleasure of the President of India.

2.       The Prime Minister must respect the Constitution. It is gratifying that the service charges and relatively higher credit at 2% above maximum deposit rates for rural people in the budget are consistent with the suggestions given earlier. However, the economic policy of the Government shall be none other than socialism.

3.       The Council of Ministers must respect our Constitution.

4.       The print media must respect our Constitution. Unfortunately, the sole objective of the print media is fattening their masters at the expense of the common man all over India. Obviously, the only field where they oppose the real FDI is in the print media. They do not like to point out that liberalization is different from privatization of the existing PSUs. They never say that the PSUs are functioning like private companies although the Government owns them. By not discussing the salient features of the Constitution at a crucial period, and by propounding different principles, they showed that they have an axe to grind, cheated 1000 million people and facilitated treachery and day light robbery. Further, the print media is conniving at several murky deals. In fact, the media syndicate is the anti constitutional terrorist in India. That the media syndicate is racist in character can be gauged from the editorial of The New Indian Express dated 10- 2-2002.

5.       The Governor, RBI, must respect our Constitution. It is his duty to prevent flight of capital from the States and from the country. Now he has asked the banks to see that the funds given to the PSUs are not diverted to the State Governments. In November 2001, Tata Finance-ran over the Bank of India (BoI) and took Rs. 850 crore as advance for an undisclosed purpose at a time when the State Governments were crying frantically for money. Tata had earlier diverted Re. 528 crore to Keten Parekh related activities. The CBI must have knowledge about the whereabouts of the money and now the RBI must ask the CBI to reveal the list of offenders involved in this deal. Had Tata been a common man not only the privatization of VSNL been stayed but also all his properties would have been attached. The only condition is that he should have taken the said Re. 850 crore. Previously Mr. Keten Parekh-a 24 year boy- could raise more than Re. 1000/- crore from banks and siphon off Re.3000 crore in March 2001 alone to other countries. The RBI reserved 5% of the credit to brokers and the guideline is even now followed although it was pointed out to the President of India that such reservations were unconstitutional. If the monies disbursed by the State Governments- instead of returning to the original place- land in foreign countries via Banks, UTI, Mutual Funds, LIC, Tatas and brokers, where will the State Governments go for money to meet the day today needs of their people? After causing such harms to economic activity, the RBI stands in the way of the State Governments from raising money from the banks.

6.       The Human Rights Commission must respect the Constitution. Since the SHRC found that an IPS officer was specifically responsible for an incident, either the SHRC or the NHRC must have saved the victim of that incident from prosecution. The letters sent to the President of India on constitutional matters shall not end in vain.

7.       The investigation agencies must respect the Constitution. They must resort to arrest a citizen or an alleged offender in good faith that too only after proper investigation. Not withstanding the set backs in lower courts, all cases involving big offenders must be taken up to the Supreme Court.

8.       The Comptroller and Auditor General and CVC must respect our Constitution. They must notice the suggestions given to the President of India and take necessary steps to prevent big commissions. The CVC should not expect the people without protection to provide the list of cases remaining in a half-baked condition.

9.       People must respect the Constitution. Some very powerful players including the masters of some newspapers are trying to become foreigners after becoming global giants by grabbing the PSUs. The act of permitting them to invest $100 million in other countries every year, as in the present budget, is a complementary action. They have already pocketed socialism. Now it is the duty of the people to restore the status quo ante of the Constitution.   

10.     The Chief Justice of India and all other judges must respect the Constitution. There was a time when post cards were accepted as writ petitions. 

          In this connection, it is disturbing to note that when the Prime Minister was in the USA the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestments took some crucial decisions. It was at this time it was reported that Tata was given an advance of Re 850/- crore from the BoI. It confirmed the worst fears of the common man that the PSUs would be purchased using public funds or ill-gotten funds and converted into private properties. Now the money parked abroad by brokers would be utilized to buy the Shipping Corporation of India. It must be also noted that the Prime Minister canceled the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the Cabinet meeting slated for January 29, 2002. The New Indian Express became so restless and bold that it on Feb 4, 2002 threatened to engineer a crisis to the nation. On the same day, the Prime Minister compared the PSUs to pillars. If the Prime Minister did not equivocate, it was the last resistance offered by him against disinvestments. However, on the next day, the offenders using muscle power like force vanquished him lock, stock and barrel. Earlier, when the sale of Air India was thwarted the print media had tried to pull down the Government.

          The Chief Justice of India should not follow the crowd. He must snatch the key to the Constitution from the offenders - keep it with him- and act without any fear or favour. 

Vellicode,

2-3-2002

Yours faithfully,

V.SABARIMUTHU