Vijay Mallya – The Most Ethical businessman around

The title of this post may seem a bit odd considering the video of Vijay Mallya being harassed by Indians during the world cup and that is what prompts me to write this.

Vijay Mallya has offered to pay back the entire principal amount in writing to the courts. He has said that on many forums that he is willing to pay back the money owed by his company. The only thing that he wants is fair negotiation with the lenders where they let go of the interest part.

Now let us consider some other businesses that have gone kaput

Jet Airways which was touted as success when Kingfisher was going bankrupt has now gone to a bigger failure then it.

Videocon industrializes with more than 40000 cr debt has gone to the ICU

Reliance communications with a debt of over 450000 cr been confined to the bankruptcy tribunal

and not a single rupee has been offered by promoters to lenders 

And add to this a Birla scion not paying a paltry sum of 70 crores to the bank in contrast to Vijay Mallya who I willing to pay more than 5000 cr

And all these businesses and many more Ruias and others are not willing to pay a single paisa to the lenders instead, they have the gall to bid for the same business w has gone bankrupt because of their management.

Vijay Mallya has been derided, laughed and ridiculed by all. Industry veterans have laughed at him saying that he only had beautiful models and no business model, his appearance on all page 3 parties, Photographs of him with stunning beauties, his lifestyle and everything else associated with it has been laughed at but he was just living his brand and personifying it.

 Kingfisher was branded as a lifestyle brand and there was an attempt from Mallya side to provide a larger than life experience to the passengers and it is obvious that t filed but that does not turn him into the monster that he is being protected. He is just a businessman who took a huge gamble and failed.

But the question is that who is lending money to these pipe dreams. Every businessman is leveraged to the hilt and that goes for even Mukesh Ambani and these loans have been granted by relaxing the norms that were sacrosanct earlier. As banks align their lending practices to global standards the security that is taken as collateral and its definition have been tweaked by the government and the RBI.

For example, RCOM assets include its spectrum as an asset which was purchased from loans from the banks and it was taken as good enough collateral but now it is of no values in the same way as spectrums of AIRTEL, VODAFONE, IDEA and will be of no value once we progress from 4G to 5G. Jio has obsoleted 2G and 3G. And soon Jiu will be obsoleted as 5G auctions are initiated then again the same cycle would repeat and you would have JIO and other players buying spectrum by putting the same spectrum as collateral.

That is one example other practices include turning debt into security and many more exotic deals that have become part of our banking system.

So basically it is the bankers who should be held responsible for not securing the loan and Vijay Mallya should be given a hero’s welcome back to India because he is willing to pay the entire principal instead of taking Kingfisher to the bankruptcy process wherein no one is going to receive anything.

So yes he is the most ethical businessman around today remember that when you see another media story that mocks him.

The Vijay Mallya Tamasha

The Vijay Mallya Tamasha

If you look at the debate that rages in the parliament you would come to realize that what kind of people we have put there parliamentarians debating the kind of women Vijay Mallya used to go around with, if you see a story about him in the media all the time they are highlighting his pictures with different girls , everything about Vijay Mallya has come to center about the women that use to surround him and like everything else now that what makes anything interesting .

But we conveniently ignore that he is legitimate business who has suffered massive losses and has lost whatever three generations had earned he has lost control of his company United Spirits which was cash cow and he has lost everything else also.

Is doing business in India a crime if you look at it objectively he is the worst affected from this and it is he who is turned out to be a villain as if he has run away with all the money when he has made a genuine offer to pay back the money It is sad how media trial in this country are affecting courts judgments.

To negotiate with banks who lend him money is his right if banks have taken equity as collateral and lend him money  against shares and now these shares are worthless is he to blame I don’t think so  it the bank who has to be blamed who has taken equity as collateral .

We are taking away the legitimate rights of business man to negotiate his loan by putting him to media trial and putting pressure on him by pointing to his lifestyle his lifestyle is Vijay Mallya personal issue and nobody has a right to complain about it.

It is sad that business man have to run away from the country because they don’t trust the judicial system in India, courts in India are acting like social activists look at what has happened to Suborto saharha, if he would have gone out from the country he would be sitting somewhere and sipping his scotch while his lawyers would have negotiated with the court but just because he had trust in Indian judiciary he is behind bars  from the last 2 years and just because a regulator like SEBI does not like the way he does his business .

till date not single investor has complained that Sahara has not returned its money  ,the money that was given to SEBI not even 5 % of it has been distributed,   just because a regulator wants to show its authority and when you say sorry I don’t come under your control because I don’t run a limited company you destroy him and again the courts don’t go by the book but by media perception  at the most Sahara is guilty of turning black money to white so impose a penalty and let the man go but you destroy him.

The way media ,politicians and the courts are acting it is bad situation for anybody and especially the rich and famous because anybody can put up an appeal in courts on any ground and the courts entertain them and people get a way to harass individuals just because IPL is good business and some people don’t like it first you get a social campaign about IPL and water crisis in Maharashtra which is flimsy at best and surprise of surprise the courts entertain it and ban matches does it solve the water crisis no does it help anybody no, it just moves legitimate business as being guilty of running a good show and we should all be ashamed of that because some social activists don’t like to see people enjoy the good life  ,which is really sad.

Vijay Mallya has lost everything his money, his company, his future and still everybody is going for his jugular it is really sad what is happening to the man jut because he lived his brand and lived a good life that we are trying to hang him now.

To me it looks that we were actually jealous of what he achieved in his life and now are gloating and kicking him on his way down.

 Let everybody do it but the courts should give him fair trial he deserves that much.  

Salman Rushdie aka Joseph Anton

                                          Salman Rushdie  aka Joseph Anton

   Recently finished reading the autobiography of Salman Rushdie its a nice book which details his starting as writer his success and then the publication of SATANIC VERVES which led to the FATWA and how he lived through that ordeal. It’s heartening to read that despite whatever happened to him he kept his nerve found new love and tried to live a normal life in the constant shadow of death.

What I came to think after reading the book was how politics shapes up the thought process of a nation ,India was the first country to ban SATANIC VERSES and none of the people who banned it had ever red it they just decided to ban it because some Muslim religious leader had issued dire warning about it and the Rajiv Gandhi government and particularly Rajiv Gandhi himself, the novice that he was in the realm of India and its politics immediately allowed it to happen because his sycophants warned him that it could appease large section of Muslims and the  SHAH BANO case happened just because he had brute majority in parliament he upturned a judgment of the supreme court and allowed millions of Muslim women to languish in clutches  of the Muslim religious leaders

How strange is that so called religious leaders who threatened writers, poets and other artists by invoking god and doing anything illegal in the name of god because they want everybody to believe that they represent the true voice of god?

Through the entire book you get the feeling that one man who may be wrote something that was not palatable to the religious leaders was made a scapegoat for a larger agenda of superimposing your ill on the people and becoming their voice when you are not.

For more than a decade the writer lived in shadow of death and many people were killed his translator in Japan and his publishers were attacked because Iran gave fatwa and their soldiers were ready to carry it out.

Till how long this would go on, this hooliganism has now spilled to Hinduism also where we find writers and poets being attacked where no one can utter a word even his views on the religious scriptures where women are being attacked because they are not living in the way of Indian culture we should not allow our religion to become so narrow minded and bigoted, just because Muslim fanatics behave in certain way we should not copy them.

And look at where all this has led to now everybody is either a nationalist or he is not either you are Hindu you  are not, if you want to rise any other voice that is against the nationalist agenda of an organization you are attacked ,kicked and harassed  .

If we don’t atop this behavior than we would also one day slip into a culture where religion and their leaders would decide what to wear what to eat even now you have instances where a particular community wants to ban non veg  food  on particular days  you have posters on every well exhorting you to become vegetarian an if this is not stopped one day you would find Hindu fanatic hitting you because you are eating what you want .

The more I see what is happening across the Muslim world the more I realize that all this because you have allowed the Muslim religious leaders to get away with murder, instead of telling the mullah that his place is just inside the masjid we have allowed him to be know all who takes all decisions about the life of an ordinary Muslim we need to free the Muslim youth and population from their clutches, you have bring law into force and this is true that unless law of the land is supreme and religious leaders are confined to just religion there is chaos .

if we would have allowed Hindu religious leaders to take decisions on our personal and professional life we would have never made the social progress that we have made

The time has come to make law of the land supreme for the Islamic population also and someone must undo the mistake made in shah bano case.

 It’s high time.

THE INTOLERANCE DEBATE

                                                THE INTOLERANCE DEBATE

What is there to write that has not been said on this debate that has been raging in the country for the last many months but when one looks at the fact it all started with small incident at dadri and the death as later came out was due on some elements taking on personal vendetta so what was the whole debate was about that never became clear.

     There is no doubt that the RSS and the other radical Hindu organizations have their own agenda and they latch upon anything to further it but then most of the statements were from inconsequential leaders and to show those comments as  a proof for growing intolerance was not right on the part of the media and others whose job is spread news but mind in news not rumor mongering .

 But the whole episode of a lot of writers returning their awards smacked of someone orchestrating the whole event  .

Congress on its part wasted no time or effort to show the country that the worst fears  that they have so often shown to the country if the BJP came to power are coming true and the country in growing intolerant as each day passes but the it was all pure nonsense and no one listened and frankly RAHUL GANDHI is doing himself no good by trying to embarrass the MODI government at every step  unless and until he comes up with different game plan to increase his credibility and standing among the voters there is no hope for the revival of congress .

The Hindu organizations who on their part have made it a habit of attacking anyone who says anything that is unorthodox or not up to their religious sentiment may well remember that most of the Muslim radicalism to which they respond is concentrated on keeping the Muslim masses especially the women under outdated systems and the Muslim religious leaders invoke these fatwa’s and threats to keep their authority over the common Muslim but if Hindu organization also become as radical and they also attack the same things like you can never say anything wrong about any deity or you cannot interpret scriptures according to your thoughts or to justify their violence and against such personal things as sex  then we also end up where the whole of Muslim world has landed in anarchy .

Hinduism has a  long history of debate and even someone who said that   I don’t believe in god was given respect and asked to present its point of view the strength of Hindu religion is that its core is spirituality and every scripture is meant to  make you to more higher mental state and not lower  so let us  not destroy that  and it for the leaders of these organizations especially the RSS that it comes out of its mentality to manage the personal lives of common people and focus on more substantial issues .

And due to all this hullah over nothing the real issues get sidelined how can anyone try to bring in a common civil code when everything is political is it not time that somebody thought that  giving talaq to your wife on many years on phone is laughable in today era and that Muslim women also have right to education and proper legal protection when their spouse leaves them  but all these issues are getting sidelined because there is no real debate happening anywhere neither the politicans nor the media is taking these issues  to the people  it all noise chatter and the game of one upmanship happening everywhere where everybody is more concerned that how do I get my political position back instead of trying to build a consensus on important issues and that is why the parliament has been held hostage to the whim and fancy of one family whose only ambition is get power back and not to think that people are now tired of this family and want some real work to be done in this country .
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 ABOUT  JOBS AND BRIBES

23 lakh applicants for 350 posts of peons and a senior IAS officer getting caught red handed taking a bribes to open legitimate mines tells you the state this country is in where millions and millions of people are getting out of school and colleges and getting no employment because there are no business as compared to the US where they release umemployment data every month in India we have no system which tells you where do we stand in these terms

 And in system where legal business are being blackmailed by officers and politicians to shell out money how do you expect someone to start a new business  MODI cannot go to every state and make states corruption free  he cannot make politicians listen to reason on land bills and other bills because no one cares in a system where apathy towards the common man has reached a point whereas there are people dying on dengue and no one is willing to  listen no one should expect anyone to  care about employment .

Signs of systemic imbalance are everywhere home prices in metros have reached appoint where they  are out of reach of common man thousands of newly built houses are lying unoccupied  as there are  no buyers and why are there no buyers because business is not growing there no additions to the middle class  you cannot expect IT alone to generate middle class you have to have other sectors also contributing  which has gone missing  you see ATM being opened in B and C  towns where there are already too many of them but you see no bank coming up with a innovative solutions how to reach villages 

We have come at a vantage point in our  destiny as nation either  we can continue to think that we are  nation where everything is all right or we can think that everything has gone wrong and unless and until pressure builds from  bottom up we will see no changes  how so ever good modi intentions may be he cannot dare touch labor reforms because that would give the opposition a readymade agenda but if we do not reform our labor laws we can never become a manufacturing nation and we should forget about giving employment to millions of our youth and you will have lakhs of educated youth vying for the post of peon

We have reached a point where there is just cacophony rahul gandhi will oppose everything that MODI does and MODI will not be able to do anything because no one will allow the parliament to function and the people of this nation will watch a family which has brought the nation to this point not accepting the fact that its time is over and the people of this nation give hoot to what they think.

It’s time to think where we have reached and where do we want to go because this is the last chance that India has once we lose this chance it moving towards a point where social unrest regards to lack of jobs can destabilize the entire system and this would be fatal 

RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

                                          RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

Today i finished reading the RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST it’s an amazing book a book which often echoed my own sentiments and thoughts that i have on the various conflicts that surround us it also gives a view as how a Pakistani views the way we handled the attack on our parliament was the build-up of the army and the jingoism that surrounded it was necessary its gives a very poignant picture of all these things and for such a thin book just 180 pages it leaves you with many thoughts.

It also makes you pause and think on where are we heading in terms of our personal lives on what is important and what is not this mad rush for  so called professional achievement that has permeated the whole fabric of our society is this whole system of looking at life through the mirror  of what degree you got what salary you draw and to measure life through the size of your apartment or the cost of your car is this not something that we have borrowed from the west  is this not all very American in its thought  and is all this right  do we need to look at life and ourselves through the prism of how the we see world looks at us would we as an  individual or a country be successful only when we get a pat on the back from an American  when he will say that yes you have arrived 

Lets delve a bit deeper into that and look at where we are we as civilization were at a much higher trajectory than the west it like been there done that our civilization after achieving all the material wealth and power turned inwards and we got concept and thoughts like non violence , the onept of karma and rebirth and various other standards  which elude the western society today  the west is today where we were thousands of years back and they are now looking at spiritual advancement because they can’t seem to satisfied with what they have achieved as society

It’s not that their achievements are not remarkable they are America is the mightiest and the most prosperous country in the world but are they the most respected i guess not  do they care for their poor and sick i guess not they may earn big salaries in rupee terms but still half of their population lives in wretched conditions they have not been able to eliminate poverty  and unemployment instead they have pushed the standard of living to such a cost that an average American is in perpetual debt throughout his life  a reality that you are seeing being replicate in India with professionals living in metros and even in  tier 2 cities in  India living in perpetual state of debt throughout  their lives

The American way of life with no job guarantees and constant pressure on life for achieving the sales target month on month or getting the pink slip has come here to stay and i don’t know whether how much that now adds to nations collective mental stress or is it even good for the company financial health but yes it’s here to stay.

Lets delve deeper and look at  the issue of violence  we as  a nation fought our freedom struggle through non violence Gandhi was more of saint than a freedom fighter the  struggle was led on by the strength of will and soul than by force  how did this happen why did the violent methods did not appeal to us as nation and Gandhi was able to unite the entire nation the answer lies in the way we are bought up and out values we are by upbringing taught about non violence and karma and that the path that we take but if look the  western world violence is way of life arms are sold openly and used openly  their history is filled with bloodshed and lack of empathy for the human life would you even imagine a Hitler being born and bought up and allowed to run a country and kill millions of people in gas chambers  never on Indian soil but happened just several decades ago in the western world .

That’s why America once it achieved the military supereioty it has embarked on interfering in everyone lives they interfered everywhere from Vietnam to Korea from the Arab world to Sudan their hands reached everywhere and it was all done for money for power and in their wake they left behind destroyed countries and bruised civilizations who wanted revenge 9/11 came after generations of people in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Americans ins and their way of life.

It’s not that the average American is different from an average Indian or a Afghani it just that they are egged on by this sense of grandeur and mightiness that has been instilled in them they also realize that their leaders have led them on leaders like George bush and his invasion of Iraq on flimsy grounds is well known to Americans and that’s why they have elected BARAK OBAMA as their new leader someone who is not jingoistic who is not ready to kill on the slightest provocation  9 /11 made the Americans  introspect and their new crop of leaders are direct result of it .

So to look at the western world and say that how strong and prosperous they are but have they achieved anything by this are they a happy nation and what can we learn from them and not repeat the mistakes that they have committed  i think the best lesson that can be learned is to have respect and empathy for every human being  to be more inwardly looking than outwardly to understand that making money is not the sole purpose of life may be we are not enlightened enough to understand that why we human beings are on this planet but at least our forefathers tried to find the answers to that and now collectively we have abandoned that pursuit we have instead on building on to that knowledge ignored it and looked at west and their inconsequential achievements it’s time to change our point of view .

 It’s not to say that we don’t have any shortcomings yes a nation we have not been able to provide our citizens with opportunities with hope with basics of life we have killed innovation and  entrepreneurship and that’s why an average Indian looks at western world and admires it because even the basic infrastructure has not been provided in India forget India the entire subcontinent  you look at America their greatest strength lies in innovation and allowing individuals to grow that is what we have to achieve here and yes we have to preserve what we have in terms of our collective civilization heritage

THE INDIA PAKISTAN CONUNDRUM

The India Pakistan conundrum

Well this time i wanted to write something other than politics so let us talk about something that every Indian thinks about Pakistan.

Everyone has their own views about pak jingoists would berate Pakistan and would want to the dispute between India and Pakistan to grow someone suggest that we should take peace initiatives increase people to people contact and should have one to one contact so there are many views and everyone views this as per their own ideas 

But let us look at the facts

First every time we start peace talks with Pakistan these talks fail mostly because there are cease fire violation bombarding from across the border and tensions flare up and the talks fail

Secondly Pakistan is failed state economically and other wise democracy is still struggling to grow its roots in Pakistan

India is a stable state democracy has taken roots and we are a economic super power as compared to Pakistan

Before we go ahead let us analyse why Pakistan has failed.

A nation that is built on hatred and no other basis was bound to fail when you ahead an spread hatred for India in the Pakistan society thinking that this hatred is going to directed at India alone than its wrong thought sooner or later that hatred was bound to spread and you end up with different faction of society fighting which is what is happening Pakistan is in the grip of political and violent turmoil with armed factions trying to take control of Pakistan

Also the monster that Pakistan created for fomenting  trouble in India terrorists and jihadi groups that it equipped with arms and money and allowed them to grow and work and recruit within the Pakistani society  have now gone out of the control of the army and are now a force in India and they have public support

The Pakistan that Jinnah wanted to create was secular and cosmopolitan Pakistan and you can see that he succeeded in that there are still rock bands television series the Pakistani media was free before we allowed that in India so it was a thriving and modern society which has now been subdued its voice is being killed and the jihadi factions are taking control we cannot even imagine what is happening with weaker sections of society like women, minorities their life is hell

So Pakistan has failed economically, politically and socially

The Pakistani army is in complete of the nation and it would not allow any government to arrive at any settlement with India so there can never be any compromise its not possible so all these peace talks and secretary level talks are of no use

But then what is the way forward is fighting with Pakistan and engaging in military conflict the way forward no i don’t think so if we engage in a fight with Pakistan we would lose all the economic progress that we have made in the last two decades and it would not achieve anything if a nation like America has not been able to control Iraq and Afghanistan with all its military might then we cannot subdue Pakistan with  force

So what’s the solution?

It’s very simple

If a dog barks at you don’t bark back and when and if the dog threatens you keep a stick with you and keep it under control the Pakistani army is that dog let it bark but don’t let it bite one or two bombs going off in year and killing some people is small price to pay for broad based economic uplifting of the Indian society that is the major task on which we should forget about Pakistan the way it is going it is going to be destroyed as nation sooner or later

But we should learn lessons and the lesson is if we spread hatred against Pakistan or if organization spread hatred for a community that hatred is one day going to seep through every faction of society and we would end up in a civil war and we would lose everything that we have achieved

So pity the Pakistani public and learn from their mistakes and just forget about bomb or two going off here and there