Vijay Mallya has finally broken his silence regarding his hasty departure from India last year and the controversy over the alleged Rs 9000 crore loans with 17 banks that he defaulted on, via the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Unfortunately for Mallya, the words that came out don’t really make any sense. In a series of tweets, Mallya said that he had asked for help, not loans, had requested policy changes and also claimed that since the government had bailed out Air India, they could have bailed out Kingfisher.
Here’s what doesn’t make sense. First, if there were shortcomings with policy, Mallya could have worked with his peers in the industry to lobby for changes. No one in the industry seems to be bothered much with policy right now. Second, Kingfisher Airlines was a private entity, owned by a liquor baron who also owned and ran a Formula One team. Why should the government step in and offer to bail the company out. Yes, they did that for Air India, which wasn’t right as well. They could have been forgiven for doing that, simply because Air India is the national carrier.
Vijay Mallya defaulted on Rs 9000 crore. There is no justifying that, really.
