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Manmohan may slow down sell-off
By siliconindia staff writer
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Friday, 14 May 2004, 19:30 IST
NEW DELHI : On a day the Left parties sought abolishment of the disinvestment ministry, Manmohan Singh, the Congress' finance minister in waiting refused to commit that the process will not be reversed, reports a daily.
However, he insisted that the new government would follow the partys stand that no profit-making companies should be put on the selling block. Economic Times, a leading daily, caught up with the senior leader, widely tipped to take charge of the finance ministry once again, this evening after a formal meeting of the partys apex committee, the CWC that was convened to endorse Sonia Gandhis leadership. Of course, Singh quite diplomatically deflected a direct question on his likely elevation as the next FM. I cannot say anything about that. It is for the Congress president to say, he said.
Singh refuted suggestions that the Congress could encounter problems of cohabitation with the Left parties at some stage, given their ideological differences on economic policies. I dont think there will be any problem. After all, priorities for both the Left parties and the Congress is to promote faster growth, ensure a social infrastructure and lay emphasis on poverty alleviation, he said.
The senior party leader maintained that a balanced approach on the part of the government would ensure that the contradictions with the Left parties were managed A creative approach will have to be adopted he said.
Singh asserted that the Congress manifesto and the partys vision documents would form the roadmap that would outline the next governments economic policies. All issues have been clarified in the documents he maintained. Refusing to commit himself to a review of cases that were awaiting the disinvestment hammer, he contended that any position on the matter would be possible only once the Congress took charge of governance. We will discuss it. We are not familiar with the cases, he said adding Unless we see what are the merits of the case under disinvestment, we would not be able to come to a judgement.