Till now, we all knew that Baroness Thatcher is credited with whipping the Unions which held the United Kingdom in their iron grip into submission and thus paving the way for the revival of the British Industry.
That without her sterling leadership and tough decisions 3 decades back,
The link is today’s revelation that the still lying’ Rupert Murdoch' had met the Baroness in 1981. By itself the news is shattering. That because of the meeting, the Baroness, possibly didn’t refer to the Take Over of the London Times group to the Monopolies and Merges Commission, the then predecessor of the Competition Commission, UK (the presumption is mine).
The matter which is of most concern is that the ‘other’ parties to the meet, till today haven’t admitted it, and are still denying it, to read the reports.
Whatever happened 30 years ago, whether the consequences of the matter being referred to MMC might have gone against, is moot and only of interest to historians.
The point today and now, w.r.t. India is that by his move to tax foreign transactions of Indian entities, Pranab Mukherjee has shown that he is above such shenanigans. That even if industrial conglomerates have sought to ‘tune’ with him, he is impervious.
The Hindu report referred to above alleges that about Rs. 30,000 to 40,000 crores (~$ 8 billion) might be owed to GoI by the entities who’ve indulged in such activities, which includes Vodafone.
Whoa!
The other rather humbling point is that the Margaret Thatcher Archieve Trust has chosen to release the papers.
How many years we in India have to wait before such transparency is adopted by everyone here? Even after ~50 to 60 years many achieves on the Freedom struggle, the Nehru years, and the 1961 Indo-China conflict are kept away from the public eye. Just a couple of days back, the release of information regarding the sinking of INS Khukri was denied on a technicality.
Just contrast the two issues.
My Wicked half whispers, ‘Without the Baroness Thatcher, the ArcelorMittal Orbit probably would not have happened. Now where would that leave the London Olympics or fiction novels based on it?’
(image from Wikipedia)
That without her sterling leadership and tough decisions 3 decades back,
- Indians like Tata and Mittal would be scantily interested in owning Jaguar Land Rover, Corus/Tata Steel or ArcelorMittal today, or,
- the knee-knocking at the British Telecom Giant Vodafone after the Indian Finance Minister retrospectively amended taxing foreign transactions of Indian companies in the Budget 2012 would be absent.
The link is today’s revelation that the still lying’ Rupert Murdoch' had met the Baroness in 1981. By itself the news is shattering. That because of the meeting, the Baroness, possibly didn’t refer to the Take Over of the London Times group to the Monopolies and Merges Commission, the then predecessor of the Competition Commission, UK (the presumption is mine).
The matter which is of most concern is that the ‘other’ parties to the meet, till today haven’t admitted it, and are still denying it, to read the reports.
Whatever happened 30 years ago, whether the consequences of the matter being referred to MMC might have gone against, is moot and only of interest to historians.
The point today and now, w.r.t. India is that by his move to tax foreign transactions of Indian entities, Pranab Mukherjee has shown that he is above such shenanigans. That even if industrial conglomerates have sought to ‘tune’ with him, he is impervious.
The Hindu report referred to above alleges that about Rs. 30,000 to 40,000 crores (~$ 8 billion) might be owed to GoI by the entities who’ve indulged in such activities, which includes Vodafone.
Whoa!
The other rather humbling point is that the Margaret Thatcher Archieve Trust has chosen to release the papers.
How many years we in India have to wait before such transparency is adopted by everyone here? Even after ~50 to 60 years many achieves on the Freedom struggle, the Nehru years, and the 1961 Indo-China conflict are kept away from the public eye. Just a couple of days back, the release of information regarding the sinking of INS Khukri was denied on a technicality.
Just contrast the two issues.
- In the UK, documents relating to governance issues of 30 years back, are released by a private trust, which might or might not have impacted on private lives.
- In India, disclosure of documents relating to a war time incident 40 years back, are sought to be suppressed by the Government, on which a survivor of the incident has a direct stake.
My Wicked half whispers, ‘Without the Baroness Thatcher, the ArcelorMittal Orbit probably would not have happened. Now where would that leave the London Olympics or fiction novels based on it?’
(image from Wikipedia)
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