Under BJP govt, country's assets not safe: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday accused the BJP of selling the country's assets after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled an ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP).

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that under the BJP, the country's assets will not be saved.

"Sale of country's properties worth Rs 6 lakh crore -- roads, rail, mines, telecom, power, gas, airports, ports, sports stadium...Modi ji will sell everything from the earth to the sky. If there is BJP, then the assets of the country will not be saved," Surjewala said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag "#StopSellingIndia".

Meanwhiel, the TMC too claimed that the NMP is an example of government getting privatised by crony capitalists and demanded the immediate rollback of the "anti-people decision".

The party's Rajya Sabha chief whip, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, also said that never before in the history of independent India, a "Union government has so helplessly surrendered to the corporate".

"This BJP government is run by the corporate, of the corporate and for the corporate. This government has been completely privatised by crony capitalists.

"Uunder the garb of National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), it is actually a privatisation programme. They are selling off everything -- from railways to ports and highways. This is a bankrupt government. We want immediate rollback of the decision," he said.

Finance Minister Sitharaman unveiled the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors -- from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums. As many as 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including ones at Chennai, Bhopal, Varanasi and Vadodara, as well as 40 railway stations, 15 railway stadiums and an unidentified number of railway colonies have been identified for getting private investments.

Stating that there is no transfer of ownership or land, she said, "The NMP talks about brownfield infra assets where investments have already been made, where there is a completed asset which is either languishing or which is remaining not fully monetised or which is remaining underutilised."

"So by bringing in private participation into this, you are going to be able to monetise it better, and with whatever resources you obtain through the monetisation, you will be able to put in further investment into infrastructure," she said.

The total indicative value of NMP for core assets of the central government has been estimated at Rs 6 lakh crore over the four-year period FY22 to FY25.