Opinion The spirit of new times

File photo of Vijay Mallya (Source: Express Photo By Dilip Kagda)

Vijay Mallya’s good times ended even before his retirement as chairman of United Spirits Ltd (USL) that was announced on Thursday. The seeds were probably sown in September 2013, when Raghuram Rajan, who had just taken over as RBI governor, declared that promoters had no “divine right” to stay in charge regardless of how badly they ran their enterprises at the cost of shareholders, lenders and employees. Rajan himself was reflecting increasing public outrage against promoters living the high life (and flaunting it), even while their companies were defaulting on loans, taken largely from state-owned banks, and not paying salaries to employees for months. Nobody personified this more than Mallya, whose lavish lifestyle was built around fast cars, faster jets, IPL cricket and aesthetically shot calendars featuring bikini-clad models. That banks themselves took their own sweet time to declare him a “wilful defaulter” only added to the sense of disgust.

Even in his forced resignation, Mallya has received a good deal. USL, now majority-owned by UK-based Diageo, will pay him a nifty sum of $75 million for agreeing to go. Further, the company has decided to drop all charges of financial impropriety that an internal probe had apparently revealed against him. If that was not all, Mallya will now enjoy the designation of “founder emeritus” of the concern that his father had originally built (it was called McDowell and Company till 2006). He will also remain chairman of United Breweries, maker of Kingfisher beer.

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Mallya’s exit — a “clean break”, as he called it — will enable the 60-year-old to “spend more time in England, closer to my children”. Such a quiet walk into the sunset is quite at odds with someone who used to be the “King of Good Times”.