Resolution adopted at the All India Conference on Privatization in Electricity and Other Sectors organized by All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP) held in New Delhi on 15 April
Resolution on Privatization of PSE’s and various Government departments
Since the launching of the New Economic Policy of Globalization through Privatization and Liberalization (LPG) in 1991-92 by the Central government, most of the parties and alliances which formed governments whether at the Centre or at state levels, have pursued privatization. Some did it with speed and some a little slowly, depending on the level of opposition.
Although privatization adversely affects workers and consumers, governments have been implementing it to serve the interests of big capitalists and corporates whose sole agenda is to maximise their profit.
Besides direct sale of public sector enterprises (PSEs), privatization has been carried out under different names– disinvestment, corporatization, monetization, outsourcing, contractualization and Public Private Partnership and so on. to hide the real intent.
Many PSEs have been deliberately wrecked to justify their privatization. The private sector has been given preferred treatment and then PSEs have been blamed for their not being competitive. Large numbers of vacancies are not filled in PSEs and government departments, which leads to deterioration in service, again to prepare public opinion in favour of privatization.
Every attempt of privatization has been staunchly opposed by workers of electricity, railways, banks, insurance, defence production, telecom, ports, coal, petroleum, steel and other sectors. In many cases consumers/users and people in general lent their support and strengthened struggles against privatization. In a few cases, united anti-privatization struggles did succeed to halt the government’s plans. However, privatization in different ways continues to be pursued.
Continuation of privatization policy despite opposition of workers and people shows that they have no say in deciding the policies of the country. There are no means to hold the governments accountable to people. In fact, government after government has gone back upon its promises and even violated the agreements that were reached after prolonged struggles and sacrifices.
Privatisation is not only anti-worker, but it is anti-people and anti-social as well. Assets of PSEs and government departments have been built by the hard labour of generation of workers and by investing people’s money, collected through direct and indirect taxes. The government has the right to collect taxes only because it has duty to look after the welfare and safety of people.
Public sector assets belong to Indian people. Handing them over to big capitalists for private profit is not acceptable.
We, the participants of the All-India Conference on Privatization in Electricity and Other Sectors, organised by AIFAP (All India Forum Against Privatisation) on 15 April 2025 in New Delhi, call upon all the working people of India, to refuse to accept this anti-worker, anti-people and anti-social policy. All the working people of India are the producers of all the wealth of our society and hence they are the real Maliks. Each one of them should be able to enjoy the benefits of this wealth created by all of them together. No private enterprise should be allowed to earn profit out of them.
We who have gathered here resolve to strengthen our unity with all the members of the working class, with other toilers and with people at large, surmounting all barriers, to oppose privatization in any sector.
We, demand that governments at the center and states must immediately put a halt to this anti-worker, anti-people, anti-social privatization drive.
We demand that governments at the Center and states immediately take all the necessary steps to strengthen the PSEs and government departments, by immediately filling up vacancies by permanent employees, immediately making all contract workers permanent, and make the necessary investments to urgently boost the infrastructure etc. so that they can deliver excellent quality products/services to all the people of India.