6 Congress netas who sought 'strutural changes' write to Centre slamming OFB privatisation

Lashing out at the Centre, six senior congress leaders on Thursday, issued a statement slamming government's 'privatisation' of the Ordnance factories Board (OFB). Terming the changes in the FDI policy by dismissing the offset policy as 'compromise on national security', the letter demands the Centre review and reverse these decisions. Incidentally, the six signatories - Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Vivek Tankha, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor are the same faction which demanded structural changes in the Congress but were overruled.

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Six Congressmen oppose defence changes

The letter, which has not been issued as an official Congress stance, states that corporatisation of 41 Ordnance Factories across India employing 70,000 people violates the assurance and agreements with the unions. Pointing out that the reasons given by the government for the decision are similar to those by the British, the letter states it would lead to job losses, monpoly of private companies making huge profits off Defence Ministry. Opining that handing off OFBs to private companies is against India's national interest, the letter also warns against the decision to do away with mandatory transfer of technology in the defence offset procedure.

Rajnath Singh unveils new Defence Acquisition Procedure

India's new defence acquistion procedure

Under the Centre's new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP),  the offset guidelines have also been revised facilitating preference to defence majors offering to manufacture products in India over relevant components. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said  DAP has also included provisions to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) to establish manufacturing hubs both for import substitution and exports while protecting the interests of Indian domestic industry. The policy also provides for single stage accord of AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) in all cases up to Rs 500 crore to cut delays in approval of acquisition proposals. 

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Congress squashes dissent

Recently, quashing all internal dissent, Congress Working Committee (CWC) on  August 25,  retained Sonia Gandhi as party chief till elections are called for in the next AICC meeting. Moreover, it passed a resolution strengthening the Gandhis' leadership and not allowing anyone to undermine the party or the Gandhis (Rahul and Sonia). 23 senior leaders sought 'structural changes', internal election to the CWC even at state levels, the formation of an Independent Election Authority, and institutional leadership mechanism, full-time leadership at the helm at the party.  The 23 signatories include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M. Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, P.J. Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary, and Milind Deora -  belonging from the Congress' 'old guard ' and the 'young guard' (i.e Rahul Gandhi supporters). 

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