-- Girish Ghildiyal
Decision of the Supreme Court in HPCL/ BPCL disinvestment case has come as a breather for the embattled employees of these two corporations. It is a welcome decision in as much as it prevents government from bypassing Parliament and running privatisation program through administrative fiats.
Supreme Court’s decision concerns itself on the modalities of the disinvestment process. Briefly stated, HPCL/BPCL were created through a statute of Parliament. Assets of erstwhile companies of ESSO, Burmah Shell and CLATEX were acquired by the Government in 1974-77 to “ensure that the ownership and control of petroleum products distributed and marketed in India by the company(ies) are vested in the state and thereby so distributed to as best to subserve the common good”. OSOA (Oil Sector Officers Association) argued that it is necessary for the Government to take the route of Parliamentary approval. While Disinvestment Ministry argued that going through Parliament is not really required as it is within the power of elected government to privatise any entity. On the face of it, the case appeared to be that of interpreting finer legal point. But in reality the issue is of far reaching significance.
Our Constitution requires executive be responsible to Parliament. However, our governments do as they like. The notion that “executive” power rests with the cabinet has gained ground these days. So an issue of national importance, an issue on which even cabinet seems divided, is sought to be rushed through backdoor. The conduct of ministers betray this malaise. This is clear from Mr. Shourie’s reaction from Germany. He is reported to have said that “This is the difference between India and China. In India everybody seems to have a veto.” Anyone else uttering such nonsense would have been taken to task by the media. However, it is shameful that some newspapers portrayed him as a martyr. It should have been asked whether Supreme Court and Parliament were just another “everybody”.
Impatience with democratic processes is not the only problem of this dispensation. Anti-worker mindset is so ingrained that a very legitimate VRS was not approved for HPCL/BPCL whereas it was approved for the companies like ONGC and IOC which were in the same sector and were not going through privatisation. This was done to create a panic among employees on the eve of privatisation. It was thought that once privatisation was approved, employees would perforce have to accept whatever was offered on pain of losing jobs. Crucial time was lost in bringing out VRS which was necessary for changing composition of manpower in these companies, to make these companies more competitive. In addition, due diligence of HPCL was allowed to be carried even when the court was siezed of the matter. In the process, the competitors got access to commercially important data. It is well known that it makes sense for ONGC to acquire either HPCL or BPCL so that it has presence in the downstream sector too. However, ONGC was deliberately barred from quoting.
Till a few months back, gung ho liberalisers used to rubbish the idea of oil security being strategic in nature, they used to point out that entire oil industry of the Mecca of free enterprise, the USA, is in private hands, with little bearing on its security. But a deliberate and unjust war on Iraq bared fangs of the New Empire. It showed that free enterprise is not really free for all. They made a shameless spectacle of themselves at Cancun. Therefore, criticism of strategic sector is not strident this time. Actually their reasoning was a fig leaf to cover their hatred for workers. For them workers and employees are nothing but a burden – because they have to be paid. There are certain sections of economy which had protection – a very legitimate protection – of labour laws. These sections were derogatorily called labor aristocracy. Till the employees enjoy this protection, access to cheap labour will be denied to moneybags.
It is unfortunate that a sector that is strategic in nature is allowed to pass into private hands, with or without political consensus. Disinvestment, the idea floated on the plea of getting rid of loss-making corporations, has now been turned into an exercise in bridging budgetary deficit. Every attempt is being made to sidestep public debate.
Now is time for the workers to understand that without unity of the working class as a whole it would be impossible to face onslaught of capitalists and their cronies. Now is the time to up the offensive to dislodge this discredited government once and for all.