Public schools, hospitals, BSNL, ports and airports have been privatised.

Our finding

Why we rated this “False”

BSNL has not been sold

The claim names BSNL specifically, which makes this part directly checkable against the ownership record.

A Parliamentary Committee report states that BSNL is a public sector undertaking wholly owned by the Government of India. [1] Its ownership has not been transferred, in whole or in part.

Rather than divestment, the direction of policy has been recapitalisation. Three revival packages totalling approximately ₹3.22 lakh crore have been approved, covering capital infusion, debt restructuring, viability gap funding for rural telephony, and allocation of 4G and 5G spectrum. [2]

What has happened to BSNL since

After nearly 18 years of losses, BSNL returned to quarterly profitability: a net profit of ₹262 crore in Q3 FY2024-25, followed by ₹280 crore in Q4 — its first back-to-back profitable quarters in that period. [3] [4]

In September 2025 it launched a fully indigenous 4G network, 5G-ready, with the commissioning of close to 98,000 domestically built towers. [5]

Whether a state telecom operator should be run this way is a fair policy debate. What is not in question is that the asset remains in government hands.

Concession is not sale

The claim also covers ports and airports, and this is where a real distinction gets flattened.

Public-private partnership concessions at airports and ports transfer operation of a facility to a private operator for a fixed term, under contractual conditions, with the underlying asset remaining publicly owned. At the end of the concession, the facility reverts.

That is a different transaction from selling the asset. A private operator running an airport terminal for a defined period does not own the airport, cannot dispose of it, and operates under terms the government sets.

Reasonable people disagree about whether concessions serve the public interest — on pricing, on employment terms, on who captures the gains. Those are legitimate arguments. But describing a concession as privatisation of the asset misstates what the arrangement is.

Schools and hospitals

The claim's broadest elements are its least specific.

Public schools and public hospitals in India have not been privatised as systems. Government schools and government hospitals continue to operate under state and central administration across the country, and no policy has transferred them to private ownership.

Where the claim goes wrong

BSNL is named as sold and is not sold. Ports and airports under concession are described as privatised when the underlying assets remain in public ownership. Schools and hospitals are asserted without a specified instance.

The argument that would hold up

There is a serious debate available here that the claim skips.

Private participation in public infrastructure has expanded, and it raises real questions: whether concession terms favour operators over users, whether user charges rise faster under private operation, and whether the public retains enough control over assets it still owns.

Similarly, the growth of private schooling and private healthcare alongside public provision raises genuine questions about a two-tier system, even where no public asset has changed hands.

Those arguments can be made on the record. Asserting that specific named assets have been sold, when they have not, invites a factual correction instead of a policy discussion.

In short

BSNL remains wholly government-owned and has received about ₹3.22 lakh crore in revival support. Airport and port concessions transfer operations for a term, not ownership. The privatisation described has not taken place.