The stance of BJP was very clear on corruption since the party came to power. Even during his campaign, Prime Minister Modi promised ‘zero tolerance on corruption’. In 2019 election the corruption-free tenure of this government will be one of the key campaign points for BJP. Another person who is facing a speedy trial due to the tough stance of this government against corruption is liquor baron Vijay Mallya. If the government is able to make progress on the cases of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it would be a major advantage for the BJP. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Saturday took cognizance of an application by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Fugitive Economic Offender Ordinance and issued notices summoning liquor baron Vijay Mallya and others before it on August 27th. It is also being said that the discussions with the British Government has reached the final stage and Mallya could be extradited to India very soon.
Special Judge M.S. Azmi issued the notice after taking cognizance of the second ED charge sheet filed against Mallya recently, and a subsequent application by it on June 22nd seeking the ‘fugitive economic offenders’ tag. The Fugitive Economic Offenders ordinance was approved by the cabinet in April this year to address the issue of economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi avoiding criminal prosecution. The ordinance defines a fugitive economic offender as “a person who has an arrest warrant issued in respect of a scheduled offense and who leaves or has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.” The case against Vijay Mallya was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, (PMLA) which allows for confiscation and seizure of properties obtained from laundered money. Mallya is the first offender to be facing trial under the new fugitive economic offenders ordinance.
The Kingfisher Airline Company run by Vijay Mallya ran into losses since its inception in 2002 and finally closed its operation in 2012. The defunct airline has a loan default case of around Rs 10,000 crore from a consortium of 17 banks. Most of the loans were from public sector banks, with State Bank of India being the largest loan provider. Vijay Mallya was a member of Rajya Sabha between the period of 2002-2008 and 2010-2016, and it is alleged that he used his political influence to get loans from public sector banks. Mallya has said that the prevailing macroeconomic conditions and the UPA government’s policies forced Kingfisher to shut down operations in October 2012. There is some truth in Mallya’s allegations, the economic growth during UPA era was slow, which resulted in companies not making any profit despite huge investment. The slow economic growth during the second term of the UPA government was one of the reasons for huge Non Performing Assets (NPA) mounting.
The Modi government took a tough stance against corruption and took various steps like demonetization and GST to curb black money. On his recent visit to the United Kingdom, PM Modi negotiated the extradition proceedings of Vijay Mallya with British Prime Minister Theresa May. The Anti-corruption measures by the government will be a key campaign despite Hindutva being the main agenda. If the government is able to bring fugitives like Vijay Mallya back to the country, it will give a boost to the ‘Vikaspurush’ image of PM Modi.