“Other power supplies in the country will suffer the same fate if VSP is allowed to be privatized.”
The national symbol of India, the Ashoka Lion Pillar, means the message “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth alone triumphs), which is known to every citizen of the country. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of lies day in and day out, according to national peasant and labor union leaders.
The spokesman of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), Rakesh Tikait, the national president of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Ashok Dhawale, the state coordinator of the state coordination committee of Kisan Sangarsh (AIKSCC), Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao, and the national president of Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham, B. Venkat, were among those who came to town to attend the ‘Rythu Karmika Sankharavam’ held on Beach Road on Sunday to oppose the privatization of the Visakhapatnam Steel Mill (VSP).
On this occasion, Mr. Dhawale spoke to the media and supported the agitation of the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee to save the VSP from privatization. He praised all parties in the state with the exception of the BJP for their unity in rejecting the privatization of the VSP. The agitation for the VSP is supported across the country, he said.
Mr Dhawale stressed the need to protect the livelihoods of the VSP workers and farmers who donated their land to build the plant. He said other public sector units (PSUs) in the country would suffer the same fate if VSP were allowed to be privatized.
For the past seven years the Union government has been busy privatizing telecommunications, education, medicine and health, ports and airports. These “anti-people and pro-business” policies have helped 140 top business groups generate $ 596 billion in profits despite the pandemic. The policy of the Union government has been rejected by the people of all states in the country, Dhawale said.
Mr Rakesh Tikait said lakhs of farmers who were fighting in the state capital to legalize minimum support price (MSP) legalization all supported the movement against the privatization of PSUs. Describing the VSP as “the property of the local people” as it was built on the land provided by the local farmers, he said the Indian people understand that the Union government is only interested in the welfare of a few business groups.
AIKS leader Balkaran Singh from Punjab claimed that the goal of the Union government was the privatization of land, air and water. He drew a parallel between the East India Company, which had plundered the nation’s wealth in the name of trade, and the Center, which wanted to turn public assets over to corporate groups.
The following spoke: Mr. Sobhanadreeswara Rao, General Secretary of AP Rythu Sangham, M. Suryanarayana, General Secretary of AP Koula Rythulua Sangham, P. Jamalayya, and Ravula Venkayya, Vice President of AIKS.
Chair of the Ukku Porata Committee Chap. Narasinga Rao, Mantri Rajasekhar and M. Adinarayana were among those present.