New Delhi: Launching a broadside against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government's handling of economic issues, Sangh Parivar affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on February 4 opposed the move to disinvest BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd) and HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd) and demanded disbanding of the Disinvestment Ministry.

Threatening to expose "dubious, deviant and diluted persons and policies", SJM All India Convener P Muralidhar Rao also announced a two month long mass mobilisation programme from April 14-June 14 involving 'rath yatras' and aimed at political polarisation on critical issues such as WTO (World Trade Organisation), disinvestment and unemployment.

Alleging that disinvestment has become a "big business", Rao said, "We are deeply disturbed over the way the economic issues are handled by the present NDA government. It lacks vision, coherence, consistency, openness and transparency. The recent policy declarations are nowhere nearer to NDA's declared objectives."

Charging the government with allowing a few corporates to gain disproportionate influence over the policy-making mechanism, he said, "Private monopolies - detrimental to consumer interests are allowed to get established in the name of privatisation. Valuation of assets is another important area where people have valid doubts. The experience of BALCO, Modern Foods, Centaur Hotel and VSNL strengthen these doubts."

Appealing to the Prime Minister to review the decision to disinvest HPCL and BPCL, SJM threatened to join the people and organisations resisting it and demanded disbanding of the Disinvestment Ministry as "it failed to deliver any useful service for the Indian people at large".

PTI