New Delhi: He may be in the dock over a spate of unpaid loans totalling a whopping Rs 7,600 crore, but former Director of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya has displayed no sign of remorse whatsoever.
Two days ago, Mallya issued a statement dismissing allegations of being a wilful defaulter, saying he was in the process of arriving at a one-time settlement with banks over his dues. He had also charged banks and the media for sullying his image, saying that banks which are already reeling under a spate of bad loans were projecting him as the “poster boy of NPAs (Non Performing Assets or bad loans)”.
However, the justifications by the flamboyant business tycoon have found few takers among his former employees at Kingfisher Airlines who have been battling for payment of their salary dues. Women employees of the airline have now written an open letter to Mallya, castigating him for his high handedness.
Here is the full text of the letter:
Dear Mr. Mallya,
We the women employees of Kingfisher are forced to write this letter to call your bluff as a response to your media release recently which as usual had nothing about us. Exploitation is in your blood that's why you are talking about one time settlement with only banks and not the employees, Why? Because we are weak and vulnerable due to our system? Coincidentally today being '”women's day” we feel pained that our colleague's wife who committed suicide didn't get justice. (Delhi police didn't even register F.I.R. against you)-
1. You said you are fully cooperating with the agencies then why in the first place you placed legal hurdles in the path of recovery by the banks, which were following due legal process to recover the debt amount. You evaded the recovery process then what are you other than absconder? Due to our curse you are facing humiliation daily.
2. You say you are targeted and there are bigger defaulters against whom no action has been taken you may be right but those people at least didn't exploit their employees, however, why don't you talk about very small borrowers who are targeted by banks while hands in glove with corrupts like you.
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3. Before hiding behind limited liability clause please remember laws are not made to be misused and if you are such a law abiding citizen then follow them in totality not according to your convenience. Whom you suggest that we should ask our dues from-the shareholders who are almost ruined by you? Your intentions were never good that's why you never appointed CEO until it was very late. You not only killed Air Deccan (which Ambanis would have,otherwise,taken over) but also our mother Kingfisher Airlines which was feeding us. You should have gracefully exited like Capt. Gopinath did when he was not able to manage the airline.
4. You say that you are not a defaulter but you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won't be able to recover more than 5-10 percent of debt amount, that speaks volumes of your malicious intentions, in the same meeting you promised revival, payment of our salary and pleaded in the name of God to stop our agitation against you as you said people were boycotting you like a leper.
5. Do you ever realize the money you have gulped is paid as tax by a person earning as low as 2.5 lakhs/annum. Your personal security Kingfisher Villa is taken over by banks, we still wonder why you should not be treated as undischarged insolvent and be debarred from the R.S.
6. You say you are an NRI then why are you member of Rajya Sabha when you are out of India most of the time. What are your contributions as a member of R.S. other than asking for immunity and how you got elected also need to be answered.
7. You have track record of not paying even IPL players. When we protested before RCB, Virat Kohli tweeted "Today kingfisher Airlines employees booed me for their salary but whom should I boo to get my salary", he later on deleted that tweet at least, he expressed his helplessness and also that he was your victim as well, unlike Yuvaraj who remained indifferent to our appeal.
8. You paid and compensated foreign employees for fear of their strict laws that exposes your double standards and the respect you have for our nation and its law (so unbecoming of a member of parliament) . Our Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi should take note of our toothless laws, so that no one suffers in future like we did. This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/ DGCA Mr. Ajith Singh (Then civil aviation minister) was hands in glove with you.
9. We appeal to our Prime Minister to take very serious view of this and remove you from the committee of R.S. if not from the membership.
10.People those who have joined new company are not able to get tax refund as I.T. department is adjusting it against the income tax due in our account which was not submitted by you. We request our finance minister to resolve this issue.
11. You kept depositing PF but not salary again due to fear of action against you.You have even issued us tax sheet (In lieu of form-16) for the full year 12-13 but have paid us only till June 2012.
You are indifferent to us but we feel pity on you for what you have done to yourself and your empire. We don't feel happy to insult you but our contention is that why you kept us in dark. You should have immediately paid us when the first life was lost but instead, you used us as human shield to prolong your legal battle.
We want to end this letter with a positive note that there are numerous business man who have donated their wealth to charity you at least pay us our rightful dues.
Wishing for your speedy recovery.
Women employees,
Kingfisher Airlines
