Lashing out at the Centre’s advisors, the RSS-affiliated trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) urged the Centre to find out other means than privatisation of public sector enterprises to address the issues around fiscal deficit and revenue generation.

The BMS has also decided to hold a protest campaign against the Narendra Modi government on June 10. “‘Save Public Sector, Save India’ is going to be the banner of the nationwide protests,” said BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay.

A meeting of the National Committee of Public Sectors of BMS discussed the situation in sectors such as coal, defence production and petroleum products and decided to aggressively pursue its opposition to the commercialisation of the coal sector, corporatisation of the Ordnance Factories Board and Railways, strategic sale of PSUs and merger and privatisation of banks.

Upadhyay said the Centre is trying to push and impose its unjust decisions on the workers of the country. “The BMS is committed to fight until it stops the government from taking the anti-public sector and anti-worker decisions,” he added.

He further said the meeting also hailed the contribution of the public sector to the economy as well as the service to the people and demanded that the government stop the privatisation plan. “The government is justifying the dire need of money to run the government machinery. However, it has no moral right or authority to sell national assets created by its predecessors,” Upadhyay said.

He said no sensible purchaser is ready to take up loss-making PSUs and the Centre is now forced to move to its main motive of selling highly profitable entities. “The advisors to the government have a dearth of ideas to generate revenue, hence the only way out...is corporatise and privatise. Such predatory advisors are working against the interest of the nation and are keen to keep real experts away from the government, even in times of difficulties. The government should shed its reluctance in social dialogue and start consulting stakeholders to find out other means to address fiscal deficit and revenue generation,” Upadhyay said.

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