BackTough love works: Vijay Mallya falls in line
On Wednesday, Vijay Mallya offered to repay some of the Rs9,000 crore debt owed by his grounded Kingfisher Airlines
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New Delhi: For the last few months, banks have been turning the screws on UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya; and more recently even finance minister Arun Jaitley read Mallya the riot act. It seems to have worked: on Wednesday he offered to repay some of the ₹ 9,000 crore debt owed by his grounded Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. Mint reviews the time line of tough love.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi—27 March
You know how the rich have usurped public money. My government has tightened the screws on the bank defaulters. They are sweating due to fear of going to jail and are fleeing. But no one will be spared I am telling you. The money looted from the banks does not belong to the banks but to the poor people of the country and I will ensure that those who looted this money return each and every paise.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley—27 March
I think it’s a responsibility of large groups like his (Vijay Mallya’s) to honourably settle their dues with the banks. Banks have some securities. Banks plus other agencies have also coercive methods available with them through legal enforcement...these are all being investigated by relevant agencies.
State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya—10 March
Yes, there was trouble in the (Kingfisher) account, the account was already stressed. He (Mallya) wanted another opportunity to try and turn it around. We felt it was right for him to get that opportunity, but just as we risked money, we also asked that he put in a personal guarantee.
That’s the reason why we have gone to him and not only after the assets of Kingfisher Airlines, because the guarantee was given by him, a guarantee was given by the holding company. We are going to go for recovery against all three.
Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan—25 January
Let me emphasize that this is not about big businesses, not about rich people. This is not Robin Hood issue. This is an issue about the wrong doer amongst the community, who had raised the cost of borrowing for everybody. If you flaunt your massive birthday bashes etc., even while owing the system a lot of money, it does seem to public that I don’t care. If you are in trouble you should show that you care by cutting down your expenses and not flaunting more spending in public.
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