Deep conspiracy to dismantle PSUs: Rahul targets NDA over unpaid BIBCOL staff

Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the NDA government of systematically weakening public sector undertakings and preparing them for privatisation by starving them of funds and support.

He described the alleged effort as a “deep-seated conspiracy” that, he warned, would harm India’s long-term economic security.

Gandhi shared a video of his interaction with employees of Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL) at his Parliament office. The staff, he said, had told him they had not been paid for long periods and were surviving on loans and borrowing.

The company, based in Bulandshahr, is India’s only government-run vaccine manufacturer and played a key role in supplying low-cost vaccines for national immunisation programmes.

“This is the same BIBCOL that helped eradicate polio by supplying affordable vaccines. It was profitable until 2017,” Gandhi said in a post on his WhatsApp channel. “But it has been deliberately and systematically driven into losses so that government contracts can be handed over to private companies, which will then earn huge profits at taxpayer expense.”

He alleged that the government’s broader strategy is to suppress PSUs, push them into financial distress and then justify selling them “at throwaway prices” to favoured corporate interests.

“This suppression and privatisation of government institutions has become the biggest misdeed of the NDA government and a great curse for India,” he said.

Gandhi also claimed that BIBCOL’s land holdings, whose value has risen sharply due to proximity to the upcoming Jewar Airport, make it an attractive target for private acquisition.

“One day, this company will be shut in the name of losses and its assets given away for free to capitalist friends,” he alleged.

He said the employees had conveyed their grievances to the government and had been “assured” that their pending salaries and arrears would be released soon.

Calling the alleged effort to dismantle government institutions “deep-seated and extremely detrimental to India’s future”, Gandhi said he would continue meeting groups at his Parliament office to understand grassroots concerns about governance and public sector viability.

With inputs from PTI