'Selling family silver': CP(M) supports employees' strike against BPCL sale

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has extended its support to a proposed countrywide strike of BPCL employees on November 28 against the privatisation of the public sector enterprise, saying that the move is "completely detrimental to India's sovereignty."

"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) extends its support to the countrywide strike by all unions of BPCL on November 28. The CPI(M) has already announced a month-long campaign against privatisation of PSUs in December," said the party in a statement on Thursday.

"In order to meet its profligate expenditure, mostly on propaganda and spin, this government is selling public assets to meet a target of raising Rs 1.10 lakh crore. In the process, productive and value-creating PSUs are being sold to promote their crony corporates to gain strategic control of the Indian economy," added the party.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) accorded 'in-principle' approval for strategic disinvestment in five central public-sector enterprises including the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).

The party said the strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises was like "selling the family silver to meet daily expenditure inevitably ruining the family".

Apart from the BPCL, the Union Cabinet has also approved the sale of its stake in four other public sector enterprises -- Shipping Corporation of India and the Container Corporation of India, THDCIL and the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation. The government will also cease the management control of these PSUs.