21
expressions
Why Vijay Mallya makes
my blood boil
The ‘King of Good Times’ is hurt
when people say he stole money. “I
want to pay the banks and stop the
rhetoric that I stole money. Please take
the money,” he pleads
Allan Jacob
S
triking a man when he is down is not my style
in these divisive times when everything one
says is dissected and damned. However, I
find it hard to put a lid on the anger welling
inside in me as Indian billionaires, or Bolly-
garchs, as author and journalist James Crab-
tree calls them, go unpunished and taunt the
law from distant shores.
This lack of remorse and apology for their crimes, after
gaming and milking the political system and business en-
vironment to their benefit; the open cronyism; the blud-
geoning of ethics, makes my blood boil. All this is hap-
pening when ordinary men and women work hard and
honestly for their daily bread, yet are struggling to make
ends meet. What’s worse is they are persecuted (and pros-
ecuted) for the crimes of a few with job losses and penury.
The masses continue to suffer in silence as they watch
the political-business nexus unfold and prosper. They are
helpless and can only throw up their hands in despair. They
can do nothing about the situation as conglomerates with
the right connections in government siphon money from
banks in broad daylight and invest in high-flying com-
panies that go bust. When the game’s up, these business
leaders scoot, and battle extradition from London (where
else?). I am trying hard to resist the urge to take a swing
at former billionaires like Vijay Mallya, who still has the
means and money to fight expensive court cases in places
London. Maybe I am a coward who didn’t have the cour-
age to take on what Mallya and his billionaires club stood
for in resurgent India when the going was good.
Maybe the Indian government and banks should just
take his latest generous offer of a payout and let him go to
close the chapter and end this tryst with hypocrisy. ‘Take
it’, he said in tweets just this week. And he’s still tweeting
on those lines as I write this piece. His crime: defraud-
ing banks of billions using his contacts and clout in for-
mer governments, and fleeing from justice in India after
defaulting on payments. The former liquor baron is now
battling extradition to his home country where he faces a
battery of charges.
In his heyday, the former corporate czar even made it
to the Indian parliament’s upper house, the Rajya Sabha.
But troubles began when an aviation company he floated
in 2003, Kingfisher Airlines, guzzled down his core alco-
hol business, United Breweries. So he went rogue, made
a run on government banks with some help from political
friends; borrowed heavily, couldn’t repay his debts, and
slipped away to emerge in London.
To understand Mallya’s current bad times, it is impor-
tant to go back in time when he took over the family booze
business at 27 following the untimely demise of his fa-
ther in the eighties. Mallya, the former playboy and mo-
torsports diehard decided to become the ‘King of Good
Times’. He was ambitious, and his youthful passion paid
off handsomely as he carefully cultivated politicians and
worked his way past India’s socialist red tape and sluggish
bureaucracy in the eighties and early nineties. His liquor
business soared soon after India opened up its economy in
1991 and started to look beyond what was known as the
Hindu rate of growth that hovered around 1-2 per cent.
So the brave baron bought an F1 team, and threw wild
parties that every A-list celebrity yearned to be invited to.
The models trooped in, the booze flowed, the stars were
shining over his brews. It was heady stuff and Mallya had
his head in the clouds. India was shining, celebrating suc-
cess with the rise of the new barons. Meanwhile, the ranks
of the noveau rich swelled. Those who complained in the
early 2000s were only those who were not invited by him.
Others left behind were seething with envy as Mallya
made every effort to flaunt his achievements. But the tide
turned when his ambition got the better of him and he lost
his instincts, and his family business to his flying passion.
I remember a flight on the now defunct carrier from
Delhi from Dubai, and a connecting flight to Dehradun
where my brother lived. It was an old 777 aircraft, I no-
ticed, taken on lease. The air in the cabin smelt of beer, the
hand-rests were grimy. The Kingfisher logo was unmiss-
able. Felt more like a bar than a aircraft cabin, I thought.
No, it smells damp, said the missus. The stewardesses
were smartly attired in red. When the entertainment sys-
tem was switched on, the man appeared, bling and all. “I
carefully chose the menu and the flight attendants my-
self,” he proclaimed in his 2-minute long soliloquy clip,
which I thought was distasteful. The flight was uneventful,
the food bland, the service abysmal, and we swore we’d
never fly Kingfisher again. Two years later, in 2012, the
company’s license was cancelled.
Now to Mallya’s latest tweets. “Airlines struggling fi-
nancially partly becoz of high ATF prices. Kingfisher was
a fab airline that faced the highest ever crude prices of $
140/barrel. Losses mounted and that’s where banks mon-
ey went. I have offered to repay 100 % of the principal
amount to them. Please take it.” But I beg to differ with the
former baron. Kingfisher was all fluff from the word fly. It
didn’t deserve to be up in the air. Here’s why according to
a Twitter user: “If your airline suffered from high crude
prices, perhaps it was because of poor hedging strategies,
which other airlines manage quite well.”
Mallya is also hurt when people say he has stolen money.
“I want to pay the banks and stop the rhetoric that I stole
money,” he said. “Please take the money,” he pleads.
I wonder if that will get him off the hook. The Indian gov-
ernment is keen to make an impression in elections next
year by making corruption a poll plank. And Mallya could
be ‘grafted’ as a mascot in the ruling BJP’s campaign for
2019. A showpiece of sorts to present to the masses who
can take some consolation and exclaim: how the mighty
have fallen! Nice trade off for votes. From the colonial ex-
ploitation of the British Raj, bored socialist Bureaucratic
Raj and now the unapologetic capitalistic Billionaire Raj,
as James Crabtree puts it, India has come a long way.
allan@khaleejtimes.com
Allan is a news junkie
who loves a good debate