Vijay Mallya opens up on Kingfisher vs Air India, blames ‘animosity and jealousy’ for intense scrutiny

Vijay Mallya breaks his silence on the government ignoring Air India's failure and unfairly targeting Kingfisher Airlines, citing “a combination of jealousy and animosity” as the prime factors in the intense scrutiny of his now-defunct company.

In a video podcast hosted by influencer Raj Shamani, Mallya spoke about areas of stress in the aviation sector which took down his airline. He further reiterated that “Air India’s areas were probably ten times more than Kingfisher Airlines”.

Mallya’s take on negative spotlight given to Kingfisher Airlines

Shamani also questioned Mallya on the government's stance on Kingfisher Airlines. In 2008, the then-finance minister stated that the government would support Kingfisher Airlines by providing loans, but later in 2011, a Union minister of the same government started accusing Mallya of not paying taxes. 

Mallya responded by mentioning the areas of stress in the aviation sector at that time. “There were areas, nobody is disputing that but compare my areas with Air India’s areas. Air India's areas were probably 10 times that of Kingfisher Airlines,” he added. 

Shamani continued the discussion by seeking an explanation for Air India not facing anything, while Kingfisher Airlines received intense scrutiny, despite Air India being in more trouble than Mallya’s company. 

He responded by saying it was “clearly a combination of animosity, jealousy, and a whole bunch of factors”.

Mallya's ‘most-talked-about’ birthday bash

Answering Shamani’s question about the series of events that took place from the failure of Kingfisher Airlines to Mallya’s “most-talked-about” birthday bash in 2015, Mallya recounted that he was given the tag of a “willful defaulter”. 

The fugitive businessman revealed that he tried to make four settlement offers to the banks between 2012 and 2015, which the banks refused. He accused the government of refusing to accept ₹5,000 crore because it wanted to claim a higher value by selling Mallya's assets, which were worth ₹15,100 crore at that time. 

Mallya turned 60 years old on December 18, 2015. 

When Mallya was asked about spending millions of dollars on his grand birthday celebration, featuring popular singers like Enrique Iglesias, while the salaries of Kingfisher Airlines’ employees remain unpaid, he responded by saying that the timeline of the events should be taken into consideration. He mentioned that the airline was shut in 2012 and he celebrated his birthday three years later, in December 2015.

“Should have celebrated in London…”

“A milestone 60th birthday is still being held against me with such venom, I don't quite get it. But okay, maybe it was a mistake. I should have probably come here to London and had my party and nobody would have known,” Mallya stated. 

“I was transparent and lived my life pretty transparently like I always did, the media latched on to it and bashed me for it,” he said.