9. THE SALE OF HINDUSTAN ZINC LIMITED (HZL)

9.

DEMANDS OF THE COMMON MAN

          The state governments began to show great interest in the service charges. Thus, in the budget for 2002-2003, the Finance Minister of the Kerala state said that he anticipated substantial income from service charges. The Governor of the Tamil Nadu state, on 9 March 2002, said that the government would urge the Centre to amend the Constitution to allow the states to levy service tax.

          The Hindu on 11 March 2002 reported the decision of the Government to sell 61 per cent of the shares - out of 87.15 percent shareholding – in the public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco). This included 10 percent in the domestic and 30 percent in the American Market. This did not materialize until May 2011 mainly due to this work.

          Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, on 15 March 2002 said that the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) were sold to mobilize money for development purposes and to reduce the fiscal deficit. Actually, he gave more to the Unit Trust of India (UTI) through budgetary provisions than what he got through selling the shares of the PSUs. It was an act of corruption.

          On 20 March 2002, the Sterlite – a sister company of Vedanta-  and the A.V. Birla group company- Indo Gulf- submitted financial bids for securing control of public sector Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) by buying 26 percent of the shares from the government.

         Indo Gulf submitted the bid only to show that the Vedanta had a competitor. Birla group was aware of everything.

          On the same day, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee gave an assurance to a delegation led by the MDMK leader, Mr. Vaiko, that the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) would not be privatized. He said this as an act of charity. Anyone going through this work would agree that he gave the assurance not because of the demand of Mr. Vaiko but because of the seven letters before him.

          Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister of India, said that the Government had no right to sell the PSUs under the fixed economy chosen by India. He compared the PSUs to Taj Mahal. The Hindu reported it just to show that it was publishing divergent views.

         However, on 21 March 2002, the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestments ( CCD) - presided over by Mr. A. B. Vajpayee - decided to sell the HZL to the Sterilite Ltd, which had been indicted by the Bumbai Stock Exchange (BSE).
          The sale took place with lightening speed.
         The turnover of the HZL in 2010-2011 was 8,40,000 tonne for Re.108.9 billion.

          In contrast, in order to affect the transfer of an officer, the file moves through at least four tables.

        The above decision was taken not by the Union Cabinet but by a team of conspirators that formed the CCD. 

Earlier the CCD under Mr. Advani had taken a decision to sell the VSNL. Here, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee wanted to show that he was as courageous as Mr. L.K. Advani.

Surely, the nation had not seen such a deep rooted conspiracy!

      Mr. Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestments, said that the decision had the seal of the Supreme Court. This indicated that the learned judges of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice S.P. Bharucha were co-conspirators of this conspiracy.

        Mr. Arun Shourie added that the money would be deposited in a bank.

      Naturally, the money deposited in the banks would again go into the hands of the industrialists to buy more assets.

       However, the Newspapers - The Hindu and The New Indian Express included- did not report anything about the decision.

       Obviously, the decision was taken by the CCD, and not by any competent authority. No law was followed. Even the guideline devised for privatization - that the PSUs should not be sold to indicted companies - was violated.

          In the above matter, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee acted like a thief. This went down as a crime against humanity.

Dr. Manmohan Singh government later gave Re. 3 lakh crore rotting in the Provident Fund to four players secretly. The immediate beneficiaries were Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil. This crime, perhaps, overshadowed the dreadful crime committed by Mr. A.B. Vajpayee.

   

          In contrast, Mr. A. Raja, a former Union Minister for Telecom, was sent to Tihar jail in 2011allegedly because he advanced the date of bidding for telecom licenses for Re.200 crore.

          Curiously, the Supreme Court and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not bother to go near Mr. A.B. Vajpayee till May 2011. This confirmed the involvement of the Supreme Court and the CBI in the murky deal.

          If the law had taken its course, Mr. A.B.Vajpayee and his colleagues would have gone to the Tihar jail long before Mr. A. Raja went there.

          Deeply disturbed by the decision of Mr. A.B. Vajpayee government, the letter No. 8 was sent to all dignitaries on 25 March 2002. The letter follows.

 From

          V. SABARIMUTHU,

          Thattankonam,

          Vellicode,

          Mulagumoodu P.O.PIN: 629167.

To

          His Excellency the President of India,

Presidential Palace

          New Delhi.

Your Excellency

          Kindly consider the following DEMANDS OF THE COMMON MAN.

1.       The Forty-second amendment to the Constitution of India is the greatest achievement of our Parliamentary democracy. So long as it is retained in the Preamble of the Constitution, the judiciary, executive and legislature will have no power to take any decision opposed to socialism or secularism. The benefits of this amendment must flow to the common man. Now it remains blocked.  The President of India must have promptly taken effective steps to restore the status quo ante of the Constitution. The President of India remaining silent without taking any concrete action, even after several letters, is nothing but obstruction of impartiality.

2.       The repercussion of the above amendment is that the Government is forbidden from selling any share of any PSU under any pretext to any private parties. Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, Prime Minister, pricked the bubble when he declared in Parliament that the decision to sell the PSUs was taken to reduce the fiscal deficit. He forgot the fact that the Union Government refused to sell a PSU to a state Government. Further, even if the crucial words-socialism and secularism- were expunged from the Constitution, imparting racist character to the PSUs would be repugnant to the Constitution. In this connection, it must be pointed out that Mr. A.B. Vajpayee had touched the feet of a destitute woman and as such, he must have saved socialism for her.

 3.      The masters of newspapers know that they have freedom of expression. However, they must realize that they do not have any freedom to suppress news and views. They are not publishing the views of the President of India or the leaders of the opposition parties with any consistency or continuity. They are not publishing even the observations of the judges of the Supreme Court in various cases. They suppress many murky deals and money launderings. They want to give the PSUs to the foreigners who could not be trusted to manage newspapers in India. They never tell that our strategic partner could sell his stakes in the PSUs to someone from Pakistan or China. They look at the Constitution through coloured glasses and remain as a threat to it. All those who still refuse to enlighten the consequences of socialism to the masses must be severely punished and sent to Tihar jail.  

 4.  If the common man takes a housing loan, his house is checked at least thrice to see that the money is not diverted. The Union Minister for Finance had to prevail upon the LIC, a PSU, to give a loan of Re 200 crore to the Government of Kerala state. Further, we are living in a country where an employee who stole Re. 850/- from a bank was dismissed from service. However, Tata is a very powerful man. He might have planted his men in all possible places. The MD of the BoI would be appointed as the Governor of the RBI or the Governor of a big state as a reward. In December 2001, a nationalized bank even hived off its Mutual Fund Scheme to him silently.  If such a trend were not checked, he would take Re. 85,000 crore from the banks, UTI and LIC to buy the AI, IA, SCI and Indian Railways. Hence, the CBI must verify the veracity of the allegation that Tata took Re.850 crore from the BoI to buy the VSNL. If possible the information such as the purpose of loan, date of application, the person who gave the legal opinion and the amount paid to him, the processing fee collected, security offered, reason for releasing the money in one go, date of utilization certificate, may kindly be furnished.

5. The suggestion to abolish bulk purchasing must be considered with all its seriousness. Recently, the BSNL concluded a deal to buy equipment worth Re. 2044 crore from some multinational corporations. When it was pointed out that bulk buying usually involved big commissions, the deal was renegotiated in the zonal level and the yield was 10%. One more negotiation in the state level would have fetched 10% more. Can a common man digest this? Whether the equipment really reached the real destinations or not is not clear to any one.

6.       The suggestion to split the big PSUs and  giving them to the state governments must also be taken with all its seriousness. In May 1999, the Department of Income Tax asked a former Chairman of a PSU, facing charges under FERA, to pay a tax of Re. 25 crore. Now the matter has gone into oblivion. The act of splitting the PSUs could check such big commissions. The PSUs could join together to undertake big schemes if necessary.

7. The suggestion to split the banks, LIC, UTI and giving them to state governments must be also considered to prevent flight of capital through Tatas and brokers. After the letter dated 1-6-2001 the UTI has split the jobs among several managers. Now the managers could sit in different state capitals.

8. In the Jain Hawala case, the Supreme Court had asked the investigating agencies to book all persons-irrespective of their positions- that are reasonably accused of committing crime. Using this observation, the CBI must check the proliferation of economic offenders.

9. According to the Supreme Court, the Constitution is supreme. Therefore, extirpation of socialism from the Preamble of the Constitution through the back door is nothing but anti-constitutional terrorism.  It is not possible for the common man to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.

10. When the salaries of the employees all over India are either denied or delayed, the Chief Justice of India is drawing salary from the consolidated fund without any problem. Obviously, the common man is not the competent authority to call for an explanation from the Chief Justice of India. However, the High Court, Cochin, has recently said that the people are the real employer of the Judges. If the Chief Justice of India respects this, he could kindly give answers for all unanswered questions in a simple straightforward language to enlighten the common man. Further, instead of belittling the judiciary by estimating 20% of the judges as corrupt, he must come out with concrete remedies for all the ills of the nation.

          Rectitude must be the hallmark of the Chief Justice of India. Respecting the Constitution, the Chief Justice S.H. Bharucha must rescue socialism immediately.

Vellicode,                                                                      Yours faithfully,

V.SABARIMUTHU

V.SABARIMUTHU