Many of us support privatisation in general, but ...

Bias against Bhubaneswar Chitta Baral Indian Express: Saturday, July 01, 2006

A government run by the likes of Dr Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram had raised high expectations in me. However, these hopes have so far been belied. The reason why many of us support privatisation in general but oppose the NALCO divestment is that we do not trust Singh and Chidambaram to use the money raised in a way that will be fair to Orissa. The UPA government has so far behaved in an extremely partisan manner...

Now if the prime minister and his Cabinet were to shed their arrogance and correct their mistakes, starting with the announcement that the government will go ahead with the earlier plan to establish an NIS/IISER in Orissa as planned, that the government will correct regional imbalances by creating new IITs in the states without them, and that it would open central universities in backward district clusters across India, they would have gone some way in correcting the impression that they are essentially biased.

As for NALCO, if the money generated by divesting 10 per cent of the unit is spent on building Orissa’s long neglected infrastructure, then I for one will fully support the proposed divestment. However, as things stand, I have no hope that these suggestions will even be considered by New Delhi. chitta@gmail.com The writer is professor, Arizona State University editor@expressindia.com

Obsession deludes Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@mail.com

At a time when Marxists of all hues are ganging up with the Hindutva bandwagon to stall the proposed 10 p.c. disinvestment of NALCO, Baral's ambivalent and conditional support sounds as a mere mockery. These are the times when you stand up for the principles you believe in, and not fall to sleep with the enemy by default. In any case, the demand for setting up an Institute is highly elitist, and there are hundred other crying priorities in Orissa, if money is at all made available. It is simply criminal to oppose Rolling back of State Private consumption Disinvestment is justified