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Shourie meets Fernandes to resolve divestment imbroglio

In a bid to break the impasse over the divestment programme, particularly relating to the sale of equity in oil PSUs, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie had a meeting with Defence Minister George Fernandes, who sought policy review for any course correction that might be needed.

The two ministers met in New Delhi on Wednesday, a day after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took initiative to resolve the differences by holding a meeting with Fernandes along with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.

When contacted, Shourie, who was on his way to Mumbai, said that he had a meeting with Fernandes but declined to give details.

The meeting is believed to have been the outcome of the mediation of Bharati Janata Party spokesperson Arun Jaitley in a bid to bring about a consensus on the divestment issues.

Fernandes and Shourie met for the first time since the former wrote a letter to Vajpayee late last month raising certain issues including a discussion among key ministers for a review of the policy and progress, which is reported to have led to postponement of the scheduled meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Divestment from August 27 to September 7.

It is understood that Fernandes sought a rationale for divestment ministry to push ahead with the strategic sale route while suggesting that they should also consider other options like public offer to prevent creation of any private monopoly.

Neither Fernandes nor Jaitley, who is presently in Bhopal, could be contacted for comments.

Sources indicated that Wednesday's meeting was an attempt by Shourie to win over Fernandes ahead of the crucial CCD meeting, which would be preceded by another round of informal consultations by Vajpayee with key ministers including Shourie and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik.

Although, the outcome of the meeting between Shourie and Fernandes, presumably on the directive from Vajpayee, was not known, informed sources said that it would help bring about a much desired consensus on various issues to continue the divestment momentum.

Earlier, Jaitley had said the BJP was totally supportive of divestment programme but added that it was for the collective wisdom of the government to decide as to which PSUs to be divested and what methodology to be adopted.

Shourie, who had said that the opposition to divestment was mainly due to corporate rivalry, had been pushing for keeping the PSUs out of the divestment process, whereas Naik has been insisting that oil PSUs be allowed to bid for Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

Naik has also insisted that sale of equity in the two oil PSUs be done through public offer route instead of strategic sale.

Fernandes met Advani, on Thursday also, for evolving a consensus among the ruling coalition partners. While both the minister were tight-lipped, officials said divestment issues also came up for discussion.

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