Asserting that Vijay Mallya has a four-decade-long track record repaying loans and interests, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that labelling the fugitive businessman as a "thief" is not fair and betrays an incorrect mindset.
He said long back Maharashtra government had given a loan to Mallya through the state PSU Sicom, and he used to repay the interest diligently for 40 years.
Asserting that Vijay Mallya has a four-decade-long track record repaying loans and interests, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that labelling the fugitive businessman as a "thief" is not fair and betrays an incorrect mindset.
“40 saal Mallya regular payment kar raha tha, byaaj bhar raha tha. 40 saal baad jab wo aviation mein gaya….uske baad wo adchan mein aaya to woh ekdum chor ho gaya?…jo pachaas saal byaaj bharta hai wo theek hai, par ek baar wo default ho gaya…toh turant sab fraud ho gaya? Ye mansikta theek nahi hai.”
(For 40 years Mallya was regularly paying interest on loans. After entering the aviation sector, he started facing problems, and suddenly he became a thief? If a person repays the interest for 50 years, and if he defaults once, then suddenly everything is fraud? This mindset is not correct), said Gadkari, according to a report in the Indian Express.
He said long back Maharashtra government had given a loan to Mallya through the state PSU Sicom, and he used to repay the interest diligently for 40 years.
The senior BJP leader, however, made it clear that he has no business dealing with Mallya, who is wanted in India for alleged bank fraud and money laundering charges.
"If Nirav Modi or Vijay Mallya have committed fraud then send them to jail, but if we label everyone who is in financial trouble as fraudsters, then the economy will not progress," he warned.
Indirectly blaming the bankers for the NPA mess, Gadkari said our banking system is such that it does not support sick companies.
"When someone is serious then we put him/her in an ICU, but our banking system first puts a sick company in the ICU and then ensures that it dies," he quipped.
Late last month, Gadkari had blamed RBI "complicating" project finance and said over 150 projects involving over Rs 2 trillion investments were struggling to get financial closure.
"Unfortunately, many times ...the circulars issued by the RBI are creating more complications and this is one of the reasons why I am facing problems as far as financial closure is concerned," Gadkari had told an awards function in Mumbai on November 17.
(with PTI inputs)