The other day, the house help borrowed Rs. 50 to buy fish. Following the request was an unsolicited promise that she would return the money. The house help shows stronger moral fabric than Vijay Mallya. The owner of now-defunct Kingfisher airlines had always made news as the king of good times. Unfortunately for him, it is his in-your-face flamboyance that has finally let him down.
Kingfisher Airlines was launched in 2005 with much fanfare around the same time when humble, paid-food airlines were starting up. Kingfisher Airlines stood out for its extravagant service. But, while it was good to fly Kingfisher, people would wonder how it was making any profit after its over-the-top spending.
The airline went defunct in October 2012 and its license was revoked in February 2013. Mallya hasn’t paid up the salaries of those crew and employees who stayed loyal till the last. Today, Mallya owes 17 Indian banks and his employees an amount to the tune of 9000 crores. He seems well capable of repaying this debt from his holdings in India and across the world. Though he is able, he has shown no intention to do so.
Let’s give a very simple analogy to this affair. The Kingfisher saga, from start to end, is just like the story of a spoilt brat who compels his parents to get him a puppy as a birthday gift. Mallya is the spoilt brat, Kingfisher is the puppy and the doting parents are our sop-giving banks.
Now, even though the parent-banks know at the outset that they are getting into a bad deal, they put a long list of conditions before the brat-Mallya to ensure that the puppy-Kingfisher doesn’t end up becoming their liability instead. “You will be responsible to feed it. You will also take it out for walks and whenever it wants to shit. You are in-charge of its discipline. You listen to us well, we won’t do these things for you,” the parent-banks say. “Yes, yes, yes.” replies brat-Mallya.
The puppy-Kingfisher is brought home with much fanfare. The brat-Mallya outspends his pocket money to buy fancy collars, leashes, pet toys and treats but pays no attention to disciplining the puppy. So, like its master, the puppy grows up to be a brat as well. In a year, the dog is more obese and more ill-mannered than the brat who brought it to the house. The brat has no idea how to manage the dog and disasters are waiting to happen.
One fine day, the dog-Kingfisher snaps at an unsuspecting neighbour. The neighbour’s wound is deep and the parent-banks are red faced. But, both the brat-Mallya and the dog-Kingfisher show no regret. The brat disowns the dog, blames the parents for getting him a Rottweiler when he wanted a Lhasa Apso. He washes his hands of all responsibility and locks himself up in his room to play X-Box. The parent-banks are left to clear the mess. They have to face a furious society meeting, sponsor medical bills and leash-train the dog before it begins relishing the idea of attacking unsuspecting people.
While the brat ran off to play the X-Box, Mallya has reportedly flown to the UK and having a good time at a lavish country house. When have dad debts stopped Mallya from living the good life, really? On December 18 last year, he threw one of his lavish parties again in Kingfisher Villa, Candolim. The baron was turning 60, and in spite of mounting monetary obligations, he could not convince himself to make the birthday a restrained affair.
Singers Enrique Iglesias and Sonu Nigam were flown in to Kingfisher Villa to entertain the guests. Each person was reportedly given an expensive liquor bottle as a take-home gift. According to Forbes, the expenses ran close to $ 2 million. This birthday celebration came just a month after SBI bank had reportedly declared Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries as willful defaulters. Raghuram Rajan, Governor of Reserve Bank of India, had criticized the bash.
Criticism, however, doesn’t catch culprits. Swift and solid action does. In the above story, as much as we would like to blame the brat and the puppy, the parents are also responsible. Similarly, while 17 banks are screaming loud about Mallya’s bad debts, were they sleeping till now? The SBI petition before the Supreme Court to block Mallya from leaving the country came only after he had flown off a jet bag, baggage and barrel.
Call-centre employees follow up over-zealous and ill-timed phone calls even before the due date is up for phone bills, TV-cable connection recharges or loan EMIs. The common man cannot be trusted with little sums of money, but some people get a long leash even when thousands of crores are at stake. Government agencies put up a bizarre show of alertness in detaining Green Peace activist Priya Pillai without a case in January 2015. What excuses do they have when Mallya walked away from under their nose?
At a time when desperate attempts are being done “ and rightly so “ to get more investment into our industry and to ‘Make in India,’ this is the last kind of message the government should pass. We will make a joke of ourselves as a country, if we haven’t become a joke already, if we can’t even make profitable deals and recover debts from so-called barons born on Indian soil.
