Living life king-size on others’ money

I have always envied the King of Good Times, Vijay Mallya. He is flamboyant, loves finest things in life and leads, well, a royal life even when the whole Indian media, politicians and his former friends and foes in government, banks and corporations have been hounding him. More amazing, he has managed to scoot with several boxes of unknown contents and a good-looking female to boot and settle down in English countryside amid raging controversies in India.

How can he leave the country happily, leaving behind nearly Rs 9,000 crore in debt to various banks and a vacant seat in the House of Elders? Mind you, he insists he is not an absconder; he is an international businessman, with a passport to fly anywhere in the world and return to home country when he feels foreign-sick. It is an unlikely prospect in the prevailing "non-conducive atmosphere."

Nevertheless, he is making as much news sitting and sipping Scotch outside the country as he has made before flying out. Whether it's good times or bad times, live life like a king on others' money is the motto of Mallya and his ilk in this country. He is only the latest in a series of high-profile tycoons who have built lavish lifestyles for themselves on the sweat of others.

They will be brought to book, government of the day assures us when the heat is on. Nobody doubts the government's intentions (good or bad doesn't matter). But how can some get away with economic offences and financial improprieties of Himalayan proportions, while god-fearing and law-abiding tax-payers are hauled up for the slightest delay in filing their tax returns? Or, for that matter, payment of credit card bills.

If you miss the deadline even by a few hours, you will be charged interest. You have to pay for your forgetfulness. There is no grace period ... no SMS reminders about payment. Rules are rules, after all. None will be spared, government officials parrot these words day in and day out. We know how incongruous and absurd these statements are when people like Mallya leave the country – not through backdoor but royally.

There is something wrong with the system, the way it treats citizens of this country. Besides caste and religion, we have stratified the super rich, leaving the ordinary people in the lurch. Banks and credit card companies know how ordinary people's minds work: Honest people's conscience pricks if they don't repay their loans; they lose sleep if they default; they start getting nightmares of goons engaged by loan recovery agents harassing defaulters.

In contrast, look at the jet-set. The more indebted they are the merrier they are. More people will come forward to finance them and repay their old loans! If press reports are to be believed, major banks had vied with each other to offer hundreds of crores of loans to Mallya without collateral! You and I know how much paper work is involved and how many signatures are required to get a car loan sanctioned.

When it is approved, you are not the real owner of the vehicle until you clear all the installments. If you are a salaried employee, your bank will automatically deduct monthly installment once it is authorised to do so. Still, loaners make sure you don't evade payments and drive away the hire-purchased car to another land!

However, such rules and conditions don't apply to people with clout. Like in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, some are more equal than others. In India, the Middle Class, white and blue-collared employees pay for sins of others. I don't know whether it is middle class mentality or traditional morality, a majority of people shudder to think how to evade loan repayments or dodge taxes.

Honour, family name, moral values and societal norms will all come into play. Even a hand loan, taken from a friend, if not repaid immediately will invite scorn from spouse in some households. But Vijay Mallya is different mettle. We don't belong to the league of billionaires. No individual or bank will lend us a few lakhs of rupees even if we guarantee our modest dwellings as surety.

Billionaire businessmen are a privileged class with an in-built advantage either to multiply wealth or ditch others to satisfy their greed and vanity. Banks roll out red carpet and additional funds, willingly or unwittingly, hoping to recover bad loans from big defaulters. Sooner or later, the banks would realise how difficult it is to get back the money from the web of legal tangles the offenders are in.

Prudence dictates leave the big fish to the powerful catchers but focus on small fish for a rich haul. That's what Indian officials are doing now. But, is it not the government's duty to protect small fish from being swallowed by big fish?