The emperor’s borrowed feathers

For a man who prided himself on being the busiest jet-setting CEO in India, with a full fledged airline in tow, it must be mighty upsetting to suddenly realise that his passport has been revoked; that he is a hunted man being chased across continents by his government.

Former liquor baron and billionaire, Vijay Mallya has now been branded a fugitive by the government’s attorney general. Not many businessmen in the country have had to face such an ignominy.

At least not in the case of a businessman who is as high profile as Mallya whose entry, however late it was, to a party or even a conference, would be met with a hushed silence, heads turning and everyone trying to catch his gaze.

No other businessman in the country has received such attention from either the public or his fellow corporates. He was the original rockstar of the business world.

With the recent turn of events one may tend to agree with Mallya’s claim that the moment he steps on the Indian soil, he will be whisked away to a jail and the keys thrown away. But even if one assumes that this is the kind of fate which awaits him, he has no one else to blame except himself for this plight.

Let us look at all the wrong turns Mallya has taken to end up in this situation:

The birthday bash in December last with Spanish rockstar, Enrique Iglesias being specially flown in to sing happy birthday to Mallya, was perhaps the moment when the entire nation and the media turned against him. He even received a rap on his knuckles from none other than the normally diplomatic central bank governor Raghuram Rajan. This actually got the public sector lenders to finally buckle their shoes and go after him.

The $75 million deal he struck with Diageo, just to get out of the chairman’s post of United Spirits even though his personal holding was 0.01 per cent in that company was the next one.

Days after the deal, Mallya flew to London leaving a press statement behind which spoke of his virtues of being a law-abiding citizen. The statement, of course, left out the details of him having already received $40 million out of the total amount. A smarter businessman would have used that money to settle dues of his employees and small vendors to gain instant public sympathy.

Repeated summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate didn’t make Mallya move even an inch. It immediately raised their suspicion about his intentions. They must have also felt that if every other defaulter seeks refuge in another country, their effectiveness as a law enforcing agency will come into question.

There are of course bigger defaulters than Mallya and they haven’t received the same kind of attention from enforcement agencies, though the money Mallya owes public sector banks places him among the top 10 corporate defaulters, according to a recent revelation by media website.

What has however, surprised many is the pace with which government agencies are pursuing him. Over the last one and half months, the government and the courts have moved swiftly. From requesting Mallya to return to revoking his passport to members of Parliament seeking his dismissal from the Rajya Sabha have all happened in a flash.

Mallya might have still been breathing easy if only he had not ‘fled’ the country after receiving $40 million in cash. There was a good possibility that the government agencies as well as the lenders would have pursued him with the same slow pace that they have done all these years. In some ways, it was more a knee-jerk reaction on the part of the lenders and government agencies as they suddenly realised there was a good chance of Mallya not returning from his foreign sojourn.

The fallout of their reaction resulted in them roping in the Supreme Court and the ED to get Mallya back. Once they set the ball rolling, almost every one joined in the chorus seeking his return.

In a situation like this, it is no wonder Mallya finds himself cornered. Now that the MEA has formally requested the UK government to deport Mallya, he has just two choices left: make a hasty exit from London and fly into another country which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with India or allow himself to be reined in by the law of the land.

Either way, being called a fugitive in a country whose citizens not long ago aspired to be like him, isn’t the kind of title Mallya could ever have imagined he would end up with.

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