Binge watch of Netflix produced web series - Bad boys Billionaire – had resulted in this blog.
1. “The Brand should live. We had created something special, unique and Indian”. This was expressed by a creative director who had worked for Nirav Modi. In the same episode a leading magazine editor also confessed that no questions were raised about bonafide of Nirav Modi’s business as money was flowing and everyone in the media business enjoyed the benefits. Further the workers in Nirav Modi’s factory in Surat regard him as a saviour and pray that he comes back for their sake.
2. Mr. Vivek Kapoor (I have personally meet him couple of times & he always came out as ardent admirer of Mr. Subrata Roy) and Mr. Rahul Bajaj are seen hero worshipping Mr. Subrata Roy of Sahara group in another episode because he did good for so many people. Both these individuals were ex-employees of Mr. Subrata Roy and have claimed to see him in close quarters and also state they immensely benefited from their association with Mr. Roy.
3. Mr. Vijay Mallya has been attributed as Bad Boy in the same league as the above two fraudulent characters because he was willfull defaulter. Employees of Kingfisher Airline have cursed Mr. Vijay Mallya and hold him in contempt.
Three episode of the webseries captures the ethos of prevailing social fabric of India and everything that is wrong with it. I am not painting Mr. Vijay Mallya as a perfect individual. However painting a failed businessman like Mr. Vijay Mallya with other fraudsters is not a very sensible thing. It would suit the webseries producers commercial interest but is very shallow. Every person (characters presented in the webseries, the producers of the series and the consumers of the webseries) seems concerned about their own commercial interest. There is limited sense of Morality, Ethics or positive discrimination.
I am examining few key differences:
1. Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher was listed entity subject to various scrutiny / compliances. The company had declared losses and this situation could be corroborated with the larger industry facing similar situation (Air India and subsequently Jet Airways faced similar existential question). Kingfisher indeed lost substantial amounts on its legit operations. On this count both the other businessmen in question operated from a very consciously developed opaque world with limited scrutiny.
2. Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher went through due process of applying for loans and multiple agencies and senior officials were on record to evaluate and approve loans to Kingfisher. He infact alleges to have given personal guarantee for these loans under duress and seeking that it be declared void. Thus, the whole process was not discreet and subjected to reviews as would be applicable to any loan application. The risk from bankers perspective was at that time adequately covered with value of personal assets of Mr. Vijay Mallya. Other two businessmen managed fraudulent submissions / bribed / misreported financial numbers to obtain loans.
3. Kingfisher Airlines was a brand trying to redefine air travel. This was experienced by most of the consumers of air travel. Most of the consumers enjoyed a lifestyle brand of flying at economy prices due to competition. This also resulted in sustained losses for the business. Compare this with Nirav Modi business. It was completely an elite business model with limited access or relevance for 95% of world consumers. Assuming that Nirav Modi made business losses it was largely on the back of value destructive opulence rather than any meaningful economic activity. I am still trying to find answer what is “economic activity” other than mobilizing money that Sahara was undertaking. Most of the people in the webseries failed to distinguish and positively discriminate this aspect. The focus was on the façade of goodness the later two businessmen created around them. Paying few thousands for charity after defrauding millions is not act of goodness. Further creating a brand by spending large sums but with no underlying economic relevance is foolish and futile. This is a material difference between Kingfisher and the other two business.
4. Kingfisher at its peak had about 5000 employees mostly in metro / urban centres. Unpaid salaries of these employees are estimated at around INR 300 crores. Firestar had around 1500 (largely in tier 1 town) employees and comparable numbers (employees / agents / family members are few terms used loosely) for Sahara group would be inappropriate even to guess. One of the principle difference is that Kingfisher employees were paid better than most in similar positions within the industry whilst not much can be posted about the other two businessmen. Despite this, the employees of Kingfisher demonstrate high level of grouse against Mr. Vijay Mallya whilst other two businessmen are still highly regarded. Mr. Mallya was demonized for not paying salaries and thus causing irreparable harm to employees. There were reports about Mr. Mallya enjoying lavish birthday parties and Kingfisher employees languishing. It was indeed a very unfortunate situation. However legally expecting Mr. Mallya to pay salaries from his personal wealth goes against the concept of Limited Liability business structures. Mr. Mallya on humane grounds could have funded salaries. But claims by employees on his personal wealth for paying salaries cannot appeal to normal commercial logic. Better paid individuals should be able to plan their finances better and surely have rainy day funds. Lack of such planning is employees failure too and cannot be attributed completely on Mr. Mallya. On a different note the very antipodal mindset of “urban / educated” Kingfisher employees and the “non urban / semi literate” employees / agent of other two business could become a major case study for psychology students.
Conclusion:
In pursuit of individual commercial interest, ignoring larger societal concern will result in peril. Further our society needs to be able develop a sense of positive discrimination. Hiranyakashipu, Raavan and Bali are all considered evil. However our Purana’s positively discriminate between these three and accordingly recommend corrective actions. Evil needs corrections - some need to be aggressively destroyed, others need to be persuaded first and if that fails destroyed and some need to be nudged. Pray Sanity Prevails.
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