Kingfizzer by Kingshuk Nag

Author:Kingshuk Nag
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2017-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

8

Mallya’s Foray into Politics

RAMAKRISHNA HEGDE WAS THE chief minister of Karnataka when Vijay Mallya took over the reins at the UB Group in late 1983. Mallya knew that for presiding efficiently over a liquor business, he would need to maintain good relations with the government. It was essential for liquor manufacturers to be on the right side of the powers-that-be, as liquor was still considered a none-too-respectable business in the mid-1980s. With this in mind, Mallya started cultivating the chief minister.

Born in 1926, Hegde was a man of Mallya’s father’s age, twenty-eight years older than him. But this huge age difference did not come in the way of a close bond developing between the two. They had much in common: in the world of politics dominated by many rustic actors, Hegde was not a run-of-the-mill politician. He had a personality of his own and was engaged in activities like theatre. In this respect he was much like Mallya, who, while being a businessman, had varied interests. To add to this, both were from the same region—north Canara (now called the Uttara Kannada district).

Over the years, their relationship matured. One day Hegde told Mallya that he must join politics, suggesting that he could be his political successor. By that time Hegde was no longer the chief minister, having been edged out by caste politics in the state. There were (and still are) two politically dominant castes in Karnataka—the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas; the path to the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore is controlled by them. Sometimes a balance between the two communities can be established by an outsider, and it was in such a situation that Hegde had become the chief minister. He was a Brahmin. Brahmins were a numerically small community, not feared by Karnataka’s dominant castes yet respected for their tradition of learning. Mallya was also a Brahmin, and Hegde suggested to his protégé that he must use this to muscle his way to power. Another consideration, of course, was that Mallya had money.

An interesting feature of Karnataka politics is that between 1980 and 2004, ‘liquor money’ had played a big role in funding it. The liquor lobby was obviously very powerful. It began with arrack, but a few years down the line IMFL manufacturers ruled the roost. In all fairness, it was not UB but another company that played a dominant role in this game. If political analysts are to be believed, a central feature of state politics in those days was widespread excise evasion by liquor manufacturers in cahoots with the ruling party. As a result, a huge amount of liquor was overlooked by the excise department, robbing the state of revenues.

The liquor on which revenues were not paid was referred to as ‘seconds’, but was sold in the market at the prevailing prices. As can be guessed, the illegal profits were shared between the liquor manufacturers and their political patrons. This continued until 2004, when Chief Minister S.M. Krishna of the Congress took liquor distribution into the state’s hands.

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