New Delhi, April 18 -- Almost 46 years after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized British Petroleum and embarked on a spate of privatizations, including British Airways, British Telecom and British Steel, during the 1980s and 1990s, the UK Parliament set the clock back.

In an emergency session late last week, it passed a law allowing the government to take control of British Steel's plant in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

In a scene unimaginable in 1980s Britain, when privatizing state-run enterprises was seen as a push for market-driven efficiency, lawmakers were called back from their Easter break to enable a state takeover of the once Tata-owned and now Chinese-owned factory.

This was a last-ditch effort to save loc...