New Delhi, Sept 18: In an apparent bid to resolve the controversial disinvestment issue, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee tonight held an informal meeting with key cabinet colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and finance minister Jaswant Singh. Although none of the participants was willing to talk to reporters on the deliberations held immediately after Vajpayee chaired a meeting of the union cabinet, the consultations were believed to have focussed on arguments by supporters and critics in the government on disinvestment.
Among others, the meeting was attended by disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, petroleum minister Ram Naik and communication and IT minister Pramod Mahajan.
The meeting assumes importance in the backdrop of public airing of differences by certain ministers on disinvestment issues including privatisation of oil PSUs Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.
It was not clear whether the controversial Rs 1200 crore investment decision by VSNL in Tata Teleservices immediately after the telecom giant was acquired by TATAs, came up for discussion at the meeting.

Bureau Report