Keeping up his attacks on Tata Group interim chairman Ratan Tata, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy fired yet another salvo at the veteran industrialist for investing huge amounts of money into Britain, instead of doing so in India.
Tata Steel had acquired UK-based Corus for around 6.2 billion pounds in 2008, making the company the fifth largest steelmaker in the world. Ratan Tata also oversaw the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover from Ford at around the same time — a deal that has helped the group’s automobile company remain profitable in later years.
However, the Corus deal had an unexpected outcome and its Indian parent is now reportedly trying to get rid of the asset.
Without taking names, Swamy was critical that a decision was made to ‘save’ a British plant employing 11,000 workers while the same amount of money invested in India would have given jobs to a far higher number of people.
However, some of Swamy’s followers were not quite in agreement with the politician’s line of argument. One, for example, asked why the politician — who holds lofty ideals about India’s place in the world — wouldn’t see the deal as an Indian company bringing glory to its motherland by acquiring big brands that form part of the psyche of Britain — the erstwhile colonial masters of India.
Swamy’s latest salvo on social media comes minutes before the TCS, the IT arm of the group, is holding a general meeting of its shareholders to remove Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the company.
Earlier today, Swamy also attacked Ratan Tata for trying to using the charitable trusts of the group to control commercial entities such as companies. “.. so far, nobody has paid attention. So, they have been carrying on,” he said.
The attacks have come as TCS shareholders vote on Cyrus Mistry’s removal as the company’s chairman. Tata Sons owns a 73.76 per cent stake in the TCS.