Don't get into the corporate war, CPI (M) tells Govt

A day after the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s meeting, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday warned the government not to make Prime Minister Office (PMO) as ‘conciliation office’ for warring corporates.

The CPM politburo in a statement said: "The Prime Minister's Office should not become the conciliation office for warring corporates however desperate the ruling party may be to retain power."

“The corporate houses are openly in the fray to lobby their interests in the run up to the confidence vote. It is a ‘dangerous precedent’ set by the prime minister for being asked to personally intervene to mediate between the Ambani brothers,” it added.

However, PMO has denied this allegation and released a statement clarifying that PMO was not intervening to resolve differences between the Ambani brothers.

Sanjay Baru, the media adviser of Prime Minister released a statement today quoting, “The Prime Minister meets corporate leaders all the time to discuss national economic issues, as any leader of a modern economy would. The people of India know Dr. Manmohan Singh would not get involved in corporate affairs.”

Yesterday, Mukesh Ambani in the capital met Prime Minister to discard the Samajwadi Party Secretary Amar Singh’s demand to impose windfall profit tax (WPT) on private oil refineries, which Amar had asked the central government to implement on exports of petroleum companies immediately.

This demand of Amar Singh came in the response of Mukesh Ambani’s criticism regarding MTN deal that was related with Mukesh’s younger brother Anil Ambani’s company Reliance Communication. Anil Ambani is considered close to Samajwadi party and Amar Singh has appealed to Prime Minister to intrude between both top corporates to end their feuds.

Mukesh also met other senior leaders and bureaucrats including Union Oil Minister Murli Deora and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for discussing on several issues in the capital.

The Left parties had first raised the issue of windfall profit tax, a tax on profits that ensue from a sudden windfall gain to a particular company or industry, especially in the case of private petroleum firms engaged in refining crude oil, which SP taken subsequently by alleging that Reliance Petroleum was making profit after the rise in global oil prices.