Less than a decade ago when Ratan Tata, the then chairman of the Tata Group, announced the acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch Corus Group in a £6.7bn deal, seldom he realised that the Tatas were buying a pig in a poke. This was in 2007 a year before the banking financial crisis. Perhaps for the Tatas there was an element of post-colonial jubilation about this transaction. Rata Tata described it as “a moment of great fulfilment for India”, as if the symbolism of possessing a trophy in the imperial birth place of mass-produced steel was more important than any commercial justification. He also called the Corus deal a “very visionary move... Hopefully in future, people will look back and say that we did the right thing.”
Nine years after the deal, Tata Steel has put its loss-making Port Talbot Steelworks in south Wales on the market, putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy, besides compelling the Conservative government to find a solution ahead of an EU vote dominated by concerns about the economy.
The major part of the blame for the crisis has been laid on China – it is a consequence of the slowdown in China’s factory floors. If people world over are buying fewer cars and houses, it is showing up in the slide in demand for steel. And this has led to fall in prices. Also, with local demand losing steam, China and other producers had to export steel at lower prices, or even at a loss, to the rest of the world, leading to accusations of “dumping”.
However, the show must go on. At present, there are two possibilities. Either the plant will shut down or somebody will take over. The latter seems to be a likely scenario. The name of Sanjeev Gupta, the 44-year founder of Liberty House, is already doing rounds for acquiring the beleaguered plant. The UK government, too, is doing its mite to revive the ailing plant. Well, all these are good positive signs.
Tata Steel perhaps is the best potential saviour, according to the thinking in the Whitehall. Perhaps that's the reason why Business Secretary Sajid Javid is flying to India late on Tuesday to sort things out. He should have done that last week itself.
Tata is the largest Indian corporate house which has other successful and well-respected huge operations in the UK, including Finlay Tea, Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Consultancy Services and many more. In the past the British government was least cooperative during the negotiations of JLR.
We ought to also understand clearly that the new technology and the processes have to be utilised if some core industries have to survive.
Finally, the ability to gauge the early warning signs of an economic meltdown will separate the men from the boys.
Dawn of a New Era in Myanmar
A new chapter has begun for Myanmar with democracy returning to Yangon after 54 years of military rule, thanks to Aung San Suu Kyi, the international icon for democracy, who fought the junta that put her under house arrest for 15 years to stop her efforts to make the people of Burma the real fountainhead of power.
But Myanmar’s new President is not Aung San Suu Kyi. She cannot be the President because the country’s Constitution, written by the military, prohibits a Burmese who has married a foreigner, or has children from a foreigner, from becoming head of state. Suu Kyi’s two sons are British passport holders. However, she has made her confidant Htin Kyaw the President, the first genuine civilian in the post in more than five decades. He assumed charge as the President on March 30.
The initial euphoria of creating history in the Southeast Asian nation or bringing a change is fine, but democracy is not a magic wand. The problems plaguing the country cannot be solved overnight. The transition only marks progress, not complete change.
The National League for Democracy-led government faces an uphill task ahead. Problems of mass poverty, regional insurgency, ethnic conflict, Buddhist-Muslim tensions and Rohingya issue will take a long time to be resolved satisfactorily. Suu Kyi will have to play her role shrewdly if she is to make democracy work.
Suu Kyi has joined the new cabinet and has four important ministries (foreign affairs, education, energy and the president’s office) and the overall responsibility to lead the nation. The cabinet also includes three lieutenant generals nominated by Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing.
If the NLD and the army cooperate fully, they can lead the nation to a new dawn.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is widely known as India’s friend, a believer in Gandhian philosophy and an admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru. With “The Lady” – as she came to be known as – in power, India-Myanmar relations should flourish in the normal course. India will have to develop closer ties with Myanmar since the countries share a 1,600-km border. Having encouraged the Delhi University-educated Suu Kyi – the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San – it is India’s prime duty to enable her to rebuild Myanmar as a true democracy.
Terrorism is Terrorism, Nothing More, Nothing Less
Last week at the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, India had proposed that Masood Azhar, the leader of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, should be declared a terrorist. China opposed the proposal.
It is not surprising. In the context of Indian subcontinental politics, China, especially as Pakistan is in its armpit, will always oppose anything India proposes which is not to the liking of real rulers of Pakistan – that is the Military.
America and France have changed their tunes after 9/11 and Paris attacks last year. The recent 'Bloody Easter' in Lahore and earlier bloodshed in Brussels have not only exposed the hypocrisy of the Western powers vis-a-vis the horrors of terrorism and proxy wars.
China itself has something to worry about in its Xinjiang and other regions where extremism and terrorism have already raised their ugly head.
The nuclear arms, its technology, etc. have reached North Korea, even China through the subtle cooperation of Dr A Q Khan, the Pakistani nuclear physicist, who secretly stole the technology while undergoing training in Europe, especially Holland.
America and other Western democracies are genuinely concerned about the nuclear arms or the technology to manufacture them falling into the hands of extremists. But China's stand in Washington last week will not only allow Masood Azhar to roam freely but could create major problems.
The British establishment should remember that Masood Azhar toured the UK in 1993 and during his 30 days he visited 42 mosques, “for the sake of Allah”. He openly told the British children that murders are allowed by the Koran.
To welcome a hate preacher is to promote hate. The roots of Jihad in the UK were planted more widely in 1993.
Platitudes alone cannot protect religious minorities, said the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in his opinion in Financial Times dated 2nd April, 2016.
Nothing more needs to be said.
