India is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of natural resources, minerals, mines and labour of the people. Yet, it is one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of standard of living. The reason for this is that the ruling class of India, the big capitalists, considers the natural resources and labour of India as its own and uses this wealth to amass more riches for itself. While a huge section of the population eke out a subsistence living, the big capitalists, facilitated by the Indian state, are leveraging the wealth of India to build their empires, in collaboration with foreign multinationals and finance capitalists. The recent takeover of Corus by Tata Steel and that of Novelis by the Birla-owned Hindalco illustrate the super greed of the Indian ruling class and their anti-national character in selling the land and labour of India for purely personal gains.

Hindalco owns huge bauxite reserves in India. It is predominantly a producer of primary aluminium. By taking over Novelis, Hindalco will be able to use this primary aluminium to make value added downstream products. The company is also among the lowest cost producers of aluminium in the world, due to its control over bauxite reserves, captive power generation, cheap labour and tax concessions given by the Indian state. Novelis, on the other hand, consumes 3 million tones of aluminium a year and has sales centres all over the world for its products. It has a 19% global market share in flat rolled products which require aluminium ingots as raw material. It has its manufacturing facilities close to the markets. It supplies cans and other finished products to many large companies such as Coca Cola, Ford and General Motors. So, the Birlas want to take advantage of this situation and sell the minerals and labour of India to make super profits and emerge as a world leader in aluminium. With this perspective, Hindalco is in the process of a massive expansion phase and is aiming to become one of the world’s five largest producers of aluminium by 2012. Most of this aluminium will be used by Novelis.

It is the same story in the case of iron ore reserves of India. India has among the world’s largest reserves of high grade iron ore. Even though per capita steel consumption in India is far below the world average, the Indian bourgeoisie has been exporting precious iron ore in large quantities. India’s government owned Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), along with hundreds of private exporters from Bailadilla (Chhattisgarh), Jharkhand, Orissa, Bellari-Hospet (Karnataka) and Goa exported 89 mt of iron ore in 2005-06. .

New entrants in the steel sector such as Mittal and Posco have been promised captive iron ore mines and the right to export iron ore. In the case of the takeover of Corus Steel by Tata Steel, making it the 5 th largest steel company in the world, the Tatas won the bid on the basis of the huge iron ore reserves of India, the captive mines owned by the Tatas themselves, and the availability of skilled manpower at the cheapest rates. Tata Steel is also one of the lowest cost producers of steel in the world, since they own iron ore mines, get enormous concessions from the government, and use inexpensive skilled labour.

The Indian state facilitates the criminal exploitation of the land, natural resources and labour of India by the bourgeoisie for their self interests. The present national steel policy allows for export of iron ore up to 100 mt per annum! In fact, there is a demand from various quarters to allow unbridled export of iron ore. The commerce ministry has signed export contracts of high grade iron ore with Japan, South Korea and China. The Hoda Committee set up to review exports of iron ore, has recommended free exports of iron ore. At present 54% of iron ore produced in India is exported. The exporters of iron ore have been arguing that the proven reserves of 13 bn tons of iron ore in India will last 30-50 years, and so there is no harm in exporting iron ore! That is, the bourgeoisie wants the people of India to continue living in huts and ramshackle slum dwellings, and continue to use bullock carts to take their produce to the market through mud roads. They do not want to improve the standard of living of the people so that their material conditions improve to a level among the best in the world. How can the Indian state allow the export of minerals and ores when the per capita consumption of metals in India is among the lowest in the world.

While allowing the export of precious ores, the Indian state also has plans to increase domestic steel production and develop it into one of the largest producers of steel in the world. But, this plan again is guided by the selfish interests of the big industrial houses and finance capitalists and the gameplan of the Indian bourgeoisie to emerge as a world power. To the extent it fetches them maximum profits, the Indian state and the ruling class will encourage the production of steel and finished aluminium products in India.

For the vast majority of the working people of India, the takeover of Corus Steel by the Tatas and the takeover of Novelis by the Birlas, to become world-scale companies, do not mean any improvement in the standard of living and the availability of necessities of life. The empire building activities of the big Indian monopoly groups, in collaboration with foreign multinationals, cannot improve the well-being of the majority of the Indian people, since these activities are directed only at making super profits for the capitalists. The people of India have been up in arms against the capitalist exploitation of these resources. Massive struggles are being waged in Kashipur and other areas opposing the exploitation of mineral resources for private profits. The Indian people want a resolution to the question: Who should own the mineral and other natural resources of India? What factors should guide the ore export policy of India? Who should have control over the domestic production and use of steel, aluminium and other metals required for building the infrastructure of India?

Unless India’s natural resources, minerals and mines become social property, the exploitation of these resources can benefit only a handful of capitalists. The Indian people cannot allow such blatant and anti-national exploitation of the resources of the country by the ruling class facilitated by the Indian state. Through the seizure of political power in their hands, through the establishment of the rule of workers and peasants, the working class should ensure that the land and resources of India serve the interests of the working people.