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SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR (MAYILADUTURAI): Sir, I have covered three-fourth of the points. I will just rush through the rest.… (Interruptions)
THE MINISTER OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS (SHRI RAM NAIK): Sir, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar said that he wanted to place the rest of the speech on the Table of the House. That is what he had suggested. But I saw his speech outside which was distributed to the Members before he completed his speech here. It is not a right thing to do. I thought I should draw your attention to this.… (Interruptions) I have seen his speech outside which has been circulated to the Press. It is not a good parliamentary practice.… (Interruptions)
The other argument for the Government’s flight from the public sector is that the public sector is inherently incapable of making itself efficient. The expression is not mine. It was used by the Hon. Minister, Shri Shourie in Rajya Sabha. Does the record bear this out? If the public sector is inherently inefficient, how is it that in 18 successive public global tenders, without resort to price preferences, BHEL – Shri George Fernandes’s creation and I salute him for that – has without fail beaten multinational giants, like ABB, Seimens and GEC Alsthom? Is not IOC the only Fortune 500 company from India? Did not the same SAIL which made a loss of Rs.1600 crore under the NDA Government, make a profit of Rs.1300 crore in the last year of the last Congress Government? What is so inherent about public sector inefficiency when 60 per cent of all PSUs are able to turn a profit, modest it is true in some cases and large only in a few? But when it come to losses also, public sector losses are modest in most cases and large only in a few. DRDO and ISRO are among the most outstanding of their kind in the world. GAIL has never been beaten by British Gas, and Shri Ram Naik will confirm that to be, yet he, shamefully begged British Gas to buy into GAIL. NTPC has secured the largest loan the World Bank has ever given to any corporate entity anywhere in the world and the Power Finance Corporation headed by the Chairman of the Standing Committee for Public Enterprises raised millions of dollars in the international money market when neither their competitors Tatas, nor their competitors Ambanis were able to do so. So, why does this Government not listen to its own executives? Why have they not included a single public sector executive in the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry? It is only because they viscerally hate the public sector. That is prejudice. It is not policy.

Sir, we have all seen the valuations of the public sector shares on the stock market. When you disinvest in piecemeal, what is the advantage that you achieve? In fact, every crticisim that Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar has made of the Disinvestment Policy as also the criticism made by Shri Basu Deb Acharia is in fact available when you make a piecemeal disinvestment. The valuation of the public sector shares in the market is not very high. Let me give you an illustration.

The Indian Oil Company, as you said, is one of the Fortune 500 companies. In fact, it is the only Indian company which is a part of the Fortune 500 companies. It is a company in profit. The Government – my senior colleague Shri Ram Naik is here – has taken a decision with regard to the importance of the Indian Oil Company and, therefore, the Indian Oil Company today is a company in the public sector. But the Indian Oil Company, a company in the public sector, a profit-making company, a company which is a Fortune 500 company, when its share was listed on the stock market, how much did it fetch?… (Interruptions)

SHRI PRAKASH PARANJPE (THANE): Sir, I have given this in writing to the former Railway Minister. … (Interruptions)

SHRI PAWAN KUMAR BANSAL (CHANDIGARH): Sir, he is making an insinuation. … (Interruptions) What else is this?

SHRI PRAKASH PARANJPE (THANE): Sir, these people are responsible for all these things. … (Interruptions) Sir, we have heard them. They have to hear us now. They should not interrupt me. … (Interruptions)

Sir, I would like to say how the dream of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was shattered by these Congress people. This is just a small example of that I am giving you. So, the orders to M/s. Richards and Crudas were stopped like that. When Shri Ram Naik became the Minister of State for Railways, I brought this matter to his notice. … (Interruptions)