Hyderabad: The observations made by Union minister of state for steel Faggan Singh Kulaste on Vizag Steel Plant in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday stating that the Centre has no plans to privatise the PSU but would continue with bidding later gave the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) a shot in the arm as the ministers celebrated it as "KCR's victory" and praised Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao's bid for VSP as a masterstroke that made the Centre backtrack on its decision.
Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, G. Jagadish Reddy, and several other BRS leaders touted the Union minister's observations as a "victory for BRS" and "victory for KCR”, and took the opportunity to state that Chief Minister K.Chandrashekhar Rao's strong opposition and vehement attack on the Centre's decision to privatise VSP compelled the Union government to go back on its decision.
The BRS ministers asserted that the Chief Minister's pressure against the Centre’s plan to privatise the VSP, along with his decision to bid for the PSU and his decision to send a team of Singareni officials to Vizag for the same purpose, compelled the Centre to change its mind about privatising the PSU and announce that it would instead take steps to strengthen it.
However, the BRS leaders stated that they will remain vigilant on the VSP privatisation issue and will not believe Kulaste's comments unless the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) makes an official announcement to that effect. Further, they stated that the BRS will not relent in its campaign against VSP until the CCEA, which opted to sell VSP, makes an official announcement that it will not sell it in the future.
Rama Rao was participating in the B.R.Ambedkar's birth anniversary celebrations organised by the industries department here on Thursday when the news broke out about the Centre's change of stance on the VSP issue. When Rama Rao received a call from officials, he went off the dais to attend the call.
Later, while addressing the meeting, Rama Rao revealed the facts of that phone call, saying, "I received a call from officials who told me that the Centre has decided to strengthen VSP rather than sell it."
“That's the power of KCR's master stroke. Our CM opposed privatisation and sent a team of officials to bid for VSP through Singareni to save it from going into the hands of private players. This forced Centre to keep its privatisation plan on hold," he announced amidst thunderous applause from the audience.
Speaking in Vikarabad, Harish Rao said, "The BJP government at the Centre decided to sell VSP to private players for a throwaway price. Our CM KCR strongly opposed privatisation and extended complete support to the agitation programmes of VSP employees. He decided to bid for VSP. Due to KCR's masterstroke, the Centre bowed and changed its stand. The ruling party and opposition party in AP remained mum on this issue but BRS fought against privatisation along with AP people and VSP workers. This is KCR's victory, BRS victory, AP people's victory and VSP employees' victory."
Energy minister G.Jagadish Reddy stated that the BRS will not rest until the CCEA issues an official announcement that VSP will not be sold. "Since our CM decided to bid for VSP, the Centre backtracked on the bidding process for now. It's definitely the victory of KCR and BRS. But I suspect Centre would continue to conspire to privatise VSP in the future. We will not give up our fight against privatisation until CCEA issues an official statement."
