Kochi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of the decision to disinvest in Public sector oil major BPCL, alleging that he was serving the interests of big corporates.
The Modi government, he alleged, had decided to sell Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, worth Rs eight lakh crore, for Rs 60,000 crore to big corporates.
"This is not privatisation. It is a theft", Gandhi said addressing a protest by the Congress party in front of Cochin Refinery here against disinvestment of BPCL.
"What is Mr Narendra Modi doing. He is helping his friends, his masters, his owners.
Without them, Narendra Modi is nothing. He is a little balloon. It is their money that put Mr Narendra Modi on India's TV screens.
And his masters have hired him to do a job. It is a clear transaction. You will give us BPCL," the Wayanad MP said launching a scathing attack on the Prime Minister over the government's decision to sell the company to the private sector.
Attacking the Prime Minister, Gandhi said Modi will be thrown out of power "like a rat" if he failed to give BPCL and ONGC to big corporates.
He also hit out at the BJP government over demonetisation and implementation of GST, alleging that "the real reason for this was to clear the way for India's most powerful corporates and the assassination and murder of India's informal sector, India's farmers, India's small and medium business."
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had been organising protests at nearby Ambalamedu against the BJP government at the Centre, demanding that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) not to be sold.
The Union Cabinet last month has approved a strategic divestment of the government's 53.29 per cent stake in BPCL, along with transfer of certain management control.
This is excluding BPCL's equity share holding of 61 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery.
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