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Cabinet rank comes after crushing blow for Shourie

Divestment Minister Arun Shourie's elevation to cabinet rank on Saturday came hours after he received the distressing news of a major foreign airline opting out of the race for stakes in India's flagship carrier Air-India.

Coming on a day he was rewarded for defending the government's privatisation policy, this development could not have been more ill timed.

A visibly upset Shourie faced media queries hours after Singapore Airlines withdrew from its joint bid for a stake in the national flag carrier, citing adverse climate and intensity of opposition.

Though Shourie had anticipated the development for sometime now, he could not conceal his disappointment at what is clearly a major blow for the government's big-ticket sale of state-run companies.

But that is typical Shourie - who always speaks and reacts from the heart, assert his friends and associates.

Veterans in the bureaucracy marvel at the ease with which Shourie, 59, a former journalist, shifted from taking on some of the toughest industrial groups in the country to handling the sale of public sector assets to those very entities.

Shourie was born in Jalandhar, Punjab. He received his doctorate in economics from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, and served as an economist with the World Bank between 1967 and 1978. He also worked from 1972 to 1974 as a consultant to the Planning Commission.

Heading the divestment ministry was a tough proposition, but Shourie gamely took over from his predecessor, Arun Jaitley.

Accepting challenging assignments is second nature to Shourie, who has been a high-profile editor, a controversial writer and a minister in charge of pruning the government and bringing in administrative reforms.

His office in Yojana Bhavan is a mess of red-flapped files lying about in tiny heaps on tables. But the minister goes through them without much effort.

The minister was ranked highly by a magazine poll for knowledge of his subject and overall performance.

In Parliament last week, he stoutly defended the government's privatization process in the face of a severe assault by the opposition parties, but acknowledged the problems as well.

After Saturday's promotion to cabinet rank, Shourie will have to plunge himself with renewed vigour to put the privatisation process back on the rails.

Indo-Asian News Service

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