FM must own responsibility; resign to save face
Entrepreneur Vijay Mallya has blasted quite a few bombs sitting in his abode abroad. While the water crossed the danger mark, Mallya has pushed union minister Arun Jaitley and tried to perch over the minister’s back to save his life. He has informed the media that he tried meeting the finance minister before he left India, and had even expressed his inclination to clear the dues up to the tune of Rs 9000 crore that he owes to various banks.
Finance minister Jaitley has also broken his long silence and said Mallya only met him in the central hall in the parliament and that it was an informal meeting. Many people like Mallya have played a big role in the economic distress the country is facing today. Demonetisation was done to save big corporate loan sharks like Mallya, and the poor had to push themselves to cough up money to make good for the bad loans that the government had given to the barons.
Now things are coming to light about what aspect of the government helped Mallya escape the legal framework of this country. Reserve Bank former governor Raghuram Rajan has brought a few facts to light in the recent times. He said when he left office upon completion of his term, he had submitted a list of risky loans that could cause problems in the future. Government could have initiated action against the likes of Mallya immediately thereafter. At least, caution could have been exercised to ensure he and his ilk didn’t leave the country.
Rajan had specifically sent a report on NPA (Non Performing Assets) and that it was imperative to initiate action against such loans. Bad loans had caused problems to banks during UPA-I. This response has somehow made the Modi government somewhat happy. But the other statements of Rajan has got the government very worried because they are direct jibes at the NDA. Rajan has precisely said the central government has failed to take action against default loaners and has not shown due diligence in probing the bank irregularities.
NDA government is projecting that it is busy creating a policy to deal with dormant assets/properties since the last few years. Among the policies that were brought into force, amendment to banks and financial institutions loan recovery act 1993, and the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill.
Through this, loan recovery tribunals have been established and code on bankruptcy and financial distress has been included.
Despite this, banks have not shown great progress in loan recovery, says Rajan. Reasons for this are quite clear. The corporates who get big loans are clearly on the side of the government. The government may pretend to initiate action on them, but in reality would protect them. Now this statement by Mallya is proving the apprehension right.
Within a few days after Rajan’s statement, Mallya said he had shown interest in clearing the loan during his conversation with the finance minister. Even the minister has concurred to this, partially. So, for the precarious situation that country is facing financially, the finance minister is solely responsible. And yet, he does not deem it fit to resign accepting his responsibility. This shows the insensitivity of the person. The current situation has failed to reprimand even a single defaulter. While Rajan had sent a letter with the list of those who had taken big loans, he had even mentioned that he’d help file a case against at least a few high profile cases to recover the loans. But since this was not met with any or positive response, Rajan moved on. Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi’s names also figure in the list Rajan submitted to the PM’s office.
So the escape route for loan sharks has become easy under NDA government since the biggies can bribe the higher ups. Mallya’s escape is dubbed as ‘escape with help’ from the government as per the current higher officers.
Weapons dealer Sanjay Bhandari had left the country under the most watchful period by the government. Former IPL chief Lalit Modi was helped by Sushma Swaraj to obtain papers to leave the country. The defaulters are grabbing the headlines everyday with their cleverly executed plans. But some of them are still living in the country. Though the union government may say it is not responsible for the escape of Mallya, it is indeed answerable about why no action has been initiated regarding the others.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
