Former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram on Friday slammed the Centre's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), saying his Congress party monetised non-core, loss-making assets when in power, in stark contrast to what the Narendra Modi-led government proposes to do. Under the NMP, the government plans to raise Rs 6 lakh crore till 2025 by leasing out state-owned strategic assets in sectors such as power, road and railways to private entities. Most opposition parties like Congress and the DMK have opposed “selling out strategic assets”.
The Congress slammed the BJP government. The party's national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed the NMP is an "almost bargain garden sale" put up by the government. She had clarified that asset monetisation does not involve the selling of land and it is about monetising brownfield assets. Congress leader Shrinate, however, claimed, "This whole rhetoric about putting these assets on rent and not on sale is hogwash. The NMP, that has been launched with much fanfare, is nothing but India on a grand sale. It is almost a bargain garden sale that the government has put up. Roads, railways, power transmission, power generation, gas pipeline, telecom, warehousing, mining, airports, ports, stadiums; all are being privatised," she told reporters here.
"Why is public property is being sold? The government should stop playing with national assets. We urge the government to get off its high horse and stop putting India on sale," the Congress national spokesperson said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday urged the Centre to "reconsider" its decision to "privatise" Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), saying they play a key role in the country's industrialisation and self-reliance goals. Referring to Centre's National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), Stalin said it was not clear what kind of impact it will leave on small and medium industries and the employees therein.
BJP response
BJP MLA from Maharashtra Atul Bhatkhalkar on Friday described Chidambaram's criticism as "hypocritical". Chidambaram, as finance minister, was very much part of then prime minister Manmohan Singh's policy to lease out airports like Mumbai and New Delhi," the MLA from Mumbai told reporters. "Now, he is opposing the same policies of the Narendra Modi government, exposing his and Congress party's hypocrisy," Bhatkhalkar said. "The policy document on leasing out major airports dates back to the Singh government," he further claimed.
-Inputs from PTI
