The disinvestment or privatisation of either banking or insurance sector as hinted by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on the floor of the parliament is by no standards of understandabilities a welcome move as fear of loosing their stakes in banks and government controlled insurance companies in case of disinvestment or privatisation would ultimately push millions of stakeholders into a severe conflict with the government. Though Finance Minister has said that one nationalised bank and two government controlled insurance companies would be disinvested or privatised in the current financial year but she has neither named the bank nor the insurance companies listed for disinvestment or privatisation by the government. Keeping in view the fears of people about their stakes in the banks and the insurance companies, the finance minister should have named both the bank and the insurance companies to be listed for disinvestment or privatisation in the financial year 2021-22. In fact the people know that they don’t have any apprehensions about the security of their deposits in banks and government controlled insurance companies because of the public accountability system governing the working of the public sector banks and insurance companies. Though political and administrative wisdom demands that government puts its policies of disinvestment and privatisation on public sector banks and insurance companies in public domain for objections from the concerned stakeholders, but ironically the government has dropped hints about the initiatives it proposes to take to impose unilateral decisions even on the disinvestment and privatisation of nationalised banks and insurance companies without giving concerned stakeholders the opportunity of being heard over the matter. __________________________________________________________________
Ill advised and impracticable decisions over disinvestment or privatisation of public sector banks and insurance companies may help the government to overcome the financial crisis that has developed in the aftermath of the non stop COVID-19 pandemic spread after early summer months last year, but such measures would surely intensify the chaos gripping the people in the wake of intensifying anti-government protests over the implementation of controversial farm laws in majority of the states across the country.
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Such an impracticable and unworkable decision would only bring people on streets the way farm laws provoked farmers to launch a non stop country wide agitation against the government and CAA triggered anti-government protests in Delhi and several parts of the country before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March last year. While the non stop 10 month old COVID-19 pandemic has almost collapsed the economy of both the government and the people, the announcement of measures like disinvestment and privatisation of nationalised banks and insurance companies are against the spirits of the restoration of an ailing economy. Such ill advised and impracticable decisions over disinvestment or privatisation of public sector banks and insurance companies may help the government to overcome the financial crisis that has developed in the aftermath of the non stop COVID-19 pandemic spread after early summer months last year, but such measures would surely intensify the chaos gripping the people in the wake of intensifying anti-government protests over the implementation of controversial farm laws in majority of the states across the country.
