SONIA GANDHI IN PARLIAMENT OPPOSING CORPORATIZATION OF PRODUCTION UNIT OF INDIAN RAILWAYS : FACT CHECK : INDIA REPORT CARD

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OPINION : 04/07/2019 : 1848.

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SUB : SONIA GANDHI IN PARLIAMENT OPPOSING CORPORATIZATION OF PRODUCTION UNIT OF INDIAN RAILWAYS : FACT CHECK : INDIA REPORT CARD

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Ref : LIES, FEAR MONGERING & IRONY: IT IS SONIA GANDHI IN PARLIAMENT OPPOSING CORPORATIZATION OF PRODUCTION UNIT OF INDIAN RAILWAYS : by IRC-ADMIN - Jul 3 2019 2:27PM : PMO INDIA

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Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi indulged in baseless fear mongering in Lok Sabha when she accused that Modi government is privatizing production units of Indian Railways. Referring to the Government's decision to corporatize six factories of Indian Railway, Sonia Gandhi alleged that it is for the benefit of a few wealthy industrialists. She was addressing the Parliament for the first time in the newly elected 17th Lok Sabha during the zero hour on 2nd July 2019.

Reading her speech in her trademark broken Hindi, the former Congress president mentioned that Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli, which is her parliamentary constituency, is also included in the factories shortlisted for corporatization. She said, "those who don't know the real meaning of corporatization, I would like to explain to them that corporatization is the beginning of Privatisation." She said that corporatization is the first process in handing over the priceless national treasure to a few wealthy capitalists for a pittance. Through this article, IRC would like to prove her wrong and show her the mirror on the aspect of privatization and corporatization.

1. SONIA GANDHI IS WRONG :


Sonia Gandhi alleged that this proposed move of Modi government would put the future of the employees working in the factory and their families will be in grave danger if the factory is corporatized. She also questioned the last Modi government's decision to do away with presenting separate railway budget. Although the railway ministry has indeed proposed corporatization of some railway units, it is misleading to say that it is done with the objective of privatization, it's would be foolishness to correlate.

In the 100-day plan prepared by the ministry after the formation of the new Government, a proposal to set up a new government-owned public sector unit named Indian Railway Rolling Stock Company Ltd (IRRSCL) has been included. The ministry aims to hive off its locomotive and rolling stock production units and their associated workshops into this new entity.


The aim of this is to bring in increased production efficiency in the units. The IRRSCL is proposed to drive the technology partnership and modernization initiatives of the seven production units under the Ministry of Railways. Each production unit under a CEO will operate as an individual profit center.

The ministry is planning only to corporatize its production units in a separate entity, and it does not mean privatization. Therefore, Sonia Gandhi was presenting distorted facts in Parliament by saying that the Government is planning to privatize the production units. Even after corporatization, the production facilities will remain a government entity named IRRSCL, and they will not be handed over to some industrialist like she is alleging.

PSUs remain under government ownership but function in a more efficient manner as they have significant autonomy. The Indian Government has several successful PSUs, many of them listed as Maharatna, Navaratna, and Miniratnas, and just the fact that they are corporations does not mean that they are going to be privatized.


Sonia Gandhi also alleged that the employees of the MDF had not been taken into confidence in the matter. But that is also untrue, as the ministry has only unveiled the plan, which says that the department will consult with unions and will ensure that no harm happens to them. According to reports, Railways will start consolations with unions immediately, and they will begin with Modern Coach Factory in Raebareli.

Coming to Raebareli Modern Coach Factory that Sonia Gandhi was talking about specifically, it may be noted that although it was established to manufacture coaches, during UPA government, no such manufacturing happened there. Instead of producing 1000 coaches per year as promised by the UPA government, the factory only refurbished 375 coaches between 2011 and 2014. Only after BJP came to power in 2014, the MCF started producing coaches. Beginning with 140 coaches made in 2014-15, it is doubling production every year, and produced a record 1425 coaches in 2018-19, exceeding the target of 1422 units.

2. PRIVATISATION UNDER THE UPA TENURE :


The fact that Sonia Gandhi is speaking against privatization and industrialists is a stark contrast to its activities during their tenure, during which the industrialists always had the last laugh.

The two famous cases of looting public money, stealing poor people's money and giving to private companies Spectrum Gate and Coalgate - This was Direct Benefit Transfer to the corporates by Congress led by the then UPA Chairperson. In 2012, CAG tabled the coal scam report in Parliament and pegged the loss at Rs 1.86 lakh crore. On 24th September 2014 Supreme Court of India decided to cancel 214 out of 218 coal blocks allocated since 1993. CAG pegged the losses at ₹1.76 lakh Crore in the case of spectrum auction.


The Supreme Court in 2012 declared the allotment of the spectrum "unconstitutional and arbitrary" .P Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister in Budget Speech 2004-05: "Disinvestment and privatization are useful economical tools. We will selectively employ these tools, consistent with the declared policy. As a first step, I propose to establish a Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE). The Board will advise the Government on the measures to be taken to restructure PSEs, including cases where disinvestment or closure or sale is justified.

GSTN was incorporated as a private limited company on 28th March 2013, under the previous UPA government. There had been criticism about allowing private companies to hold a majority stake in GSTN and in Sept 2018, NDA changed it to a Government entity.

Privatization of Delhi and Mumbai Airports: In January 2006, the then aviation minister Praful Patel announced that the empowered Group of Ministers have agreed to sell the management-rights of Delhi Airport to the DIAL consortium and the Mumbai airport to the GVK Group. In May 2006, the management of Delhi and Mumbai airports were handed over to the private consortia.


P Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister in Budget Speech 2005-06: "Stamp duty on Stock Exchange Corporatization. "The Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, as amended recently, requires all stock exchanges to be corporatized and demutualized. Three stock exchanges are not yet corporatized. To facilitate their corporatization, I propose to grant a one-time exemption to them from stamp duty on the notional transfer of assets."

Therefore, while Sonia Gandhi worries about the future of the factory, and provides distorted and misleading facts in the Parliament, the truth is that the factory flourished at unprecedented scale under the Modi government, which was ignored and forgotten during Congress rule.


Let's see what Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has to say on this :

Railways Minister Shri Piyush Goyal's reply on the questions raised regarding LHB coaches in LS: Video

*https://youtu.be/kmRPHmmVBRE?t=14

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3. OPINION : 


"This is how Congress fools people. Sonia Gandhi opposes :
HYPOCRISY ON CORPORATIZATION"

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JAY HIND
JAY BHARATHAM
VANDE MATARAM
BHARAT MATA KI JAY


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