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Image Credit: Facebook, Wikipedia/Narendra Modi, Wikipedia/Jawaharlal Nehru
No, The BJP Govt Has Not Completely Privatised All These Central Public Sector Enterprises
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
India, 23 Aug 2022 11:31 AM GMT
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As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
We found that except Air India, no other public sector undertaking mentioned in the viral list was completely privatised by the BJP government. The PSUs such as BPCL, HPCL, BHEL, Bharat Aluminum Corporation Limited (BALCO), Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has experienced a reduction in their stake under the government.
An image claiming that the central government has completely privatised several public sector companies is going viral across social media.
The Logical Indian Fact Check Team earlier had checked a viral claim by Zee News that alleged, except State Bank of India, all public sector banks were to be privatised. We had found that the claim by Zee News was false as the claim was based on a suggestion by two economists in their policy paper. Check the Fact Check report here.
Claim:
The image shows Jawaharlal Nehru and Narendra Modi on two sides of the image. Under Nehru, several public sector enterprises are listed such as Coal India, BPCL, SAIL, OEF, HP, and AAI. To the right, under Modi's image, in the Hindi text, "Sold" and "Efforts are ongoing" are written.
The claim alleges that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has sold public sector companies such as BPCL, SAIL, Gun Factory, OEF, HP, and AAI. It is also claimed that the government is planning to sell Coal India, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and educational institutions like IIT, IIM and ICSE.
The claim is viral across Twitter and Facebook.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact check team verified the claim and found it to be false.
We conducted a keyword search to check whether Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has been privatised. We came across this article by the Business Standard published on May 26, 2022.
The article reported that the Centre has called off the privatisation process of BPCL. This followed as two of the three companies that had shown interest in acquiring the public sector company withdrew their bids. The Business Standard article carried a quote from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. The Secretary of DIPAM, -Tuhin Kanta Pandey reportedly stated that the government would wait to assess the situation and decide how to proceed further.
We then searched for the DIPAM website. On the website, as per the induction material, during the past seven years, from 2014-15 to 2020-21, an amount of Rs. 3.62 lakh crore has been acquired thorugh proceeds from disinvestment through 135 transactions using various modes/instruments.
In the recent divestment section of the DIPAM website, we found that there has been the following divestment in the Central Public Sector Enterprises' for the 2022-23 financial year. However, there is no mention of complete privatization in the list.
We then checked the website of 'Bombay Stock Exchange PSU', a website which focuses on the PSU divestments in India. The website lists three different approaches for disinvestments. These are minority disinvestments, majority disinvestments and complete disinvestment or privatisation. The examples of minority disinvestment of Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd., NTPC Ltd., NHPC Ltd. etc.
On the BSEPSU website, we came across the database, 'Master Database of all Past CPSE Disinvestments'.
As per the database, the government sold off Air India to Tata Group, in January 2022. The following Economic Times article dated January 27, 2022, also affirms this occurrence.
The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited was also privatised under the Modi government.
The central government currently owns a 66.2% stake in BPCL, 54.9% in HPCL, 63.17% in BHEL, 49% in Bharat Aluminum Corporation Limited (BALCO), 65% stake in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), and 72.33% in Coal India.
Government's stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has been reduced to 66.2%, government stake in Steel Authority of India is reduced to 65%. Government reduced its stake in HPCL, Bharat Heavy Electrics Limited, Coal India, and Bharat Aluminium Company as well.
We then conducted a keyword search to check whether the government was selling stakes in telecom PSUs. This report from the Mint published on 12th December 2019, said that the government ruled out any plans to sell stakes in BSNL.
We also conducted a keyword search for the alleged ongoing divestment of ISRO and educational institutions such as IIT, IIM, and ICSE but could not find any credible reports backing this claim.
Conclusion:
In our Fact Check, we found that except Air India, no other public sector undertaking mentioned in the viral list was completely privatised by the BJP government. The PSUs such as BPCL, HPCL, BHEL, Bharat Aluminum Corporation Limited (BALCO), Steel Authority of India (SAIL) had experienced a reduction in their stake under the government.
In the case of IIT, IIM, and ISRO, no reports suggest that the government is considering privatising these organizations. Thus, we can conclude that the viral claim is false.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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