Desai hopes Tatas will manage steel crisis

Indian-born Labour party politician Lord Meghnad Desai believes that it makes no sense to nationalise Tata Steel’s units in the United Kingdom (UK).

 “The general philosophy of the government has been that they do not nationalise. We do not rescue loss making companies. It makes no sense to nationalise Tata’s UK units. I would suggest, take the workers, retrain them, reskill them, send them to somewhere where they can have longer term jobs,” Desai told Deccan Herald.

 It would be a huge change in British economic policy if the British nationalise it because we abandoned nationalisation as a tool way back in the 1980s. The idea of keeping loss making entities is not a good recipe for the economy, Desai added.

 Desai also expressed hope that the Tata Group should be able to sail through the entire crisis.

“Steel is one of those things which goes through a cycle and they (the Tatas) got it at the wrong part of the steel cycle. But in 2007, nobody knew that there was going to be a collapse in 2008, and the only thing people said was that in this bidding war, he paid $12 billion which perhaps was slightly above,” Desai said.

 Laxmi Mittal has found the same difficulty. When he bought Arcelor, he bought it perhaps at the wrong time. But I am confident that the Tatas will manage it, Desai added.