New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the central government over the move to monetise its assets across key sectors, adding the government "clearly mishandled the economy."
"Modi is not a PM, he is an instrument, working for these (monopolists)," he said, alleging the main aim of this is to create a monopoly.
"What this country has built over the last 70 years, is being given away. There is an excuse they have come up with that "we are leasing these"...The government clearly mishandled the economy and doesn't know what to do," he said.
"They (government) have basically destroyed what the UPA built and now as a last resort, they are selling everything that we had helped create. To me, this is a huge tragedy," said Rahul Gandhi.
Also read: Finance Minister unveils National Monetisation Pipeline scheme
"We are not against privatization but our privatization plan had a logic. We didn't privatize strategic industries and we consider Railways as strategic industry because it transports lakhs and crores of people and also employs lots of people," said Rahul Gandhi.
"We privatized chronically loss-making industries. We privatized the companies that had minimal market share. We didn't privatize government enterprises with the potential of checking private sector monopoly in a particular sector," he added.
Rahul Gandhi said, "You know who it is going to. You all know who is getting ports and airports. It is going to one company."
Gandhi also claimed the move "will kill employment in the country."
Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader, P Chidambaram also slammed the Government saying, "Have they consulted stakeholders, the unions, etc? All this was hatched in NITI Ayog. Can this be the sole goal, to get money through rent? To get 1.5 lakh crore?"
He further added, "This is a grand closing down sale. Virtually, there won't be any public sector undertakings left after the proposed 'roads-to-railways' monetisation plan of the BJP government. This is a scandal. People must begin debate over it."
Union Minister for Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman announced a National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) worth Rs 6 lakh crore involving private companies across manufacturing sectors. Private players would be included in various sectors from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.
Till now, 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including those at Chennai, Bhopal, Varanasi and Vadodara, as well as 40 railway stations, and 15 railway stadiums, 8,000 Km GAIL pipeline, 4,000 km petroleum pipeline, 2.86 lakh kilometre of telecom network, Rs 29,000 cr warehousing, Rs 13,000 crores ports have been recognised for inviting private investments.
