Blaming them is easy. But, we the common people made and unmade these bad boy billionaires. They are, but us on steroids.
The common theme of Netflix series Bad Boy Billionaires is the poor and the middle class superimposing their dreams on these classy conmen.
Each of them took the high ground.
Mallya got you high with his beer and ‘model’ staffed airline; Modi with his overvalued gems and Roy with his Ponzi patriotism. If Kingfisher and Nirav Modi were about recreating international standard Indian lifestyle brands, Sahara was an insidious cult where Roy presided and patronised over unsuspecting micro-investors.
Stockholm Syndrome
In each case, those that were being robbed blind clung on to hope, even defended the defrauders – a typical instance of Stockholm Syndrome. Their innocence, devotion and delusion, being simultaneously moving and baffling.
Mallya and Roy clearly suffered from a God complex. It was their hubris and showmanship that bought them down.
Modi was different. He was smarter. Kept a low-profile while scamming banks and creating a web of shell companies to inflate the value of his assets.
It took the patient effort of a Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph to track Modi in London after he fled India. Two lowly bank employees were scapegoated with abetting the embezzlement of USD 1.8 bn. No political names tumbled out, just as they didn’t when it came to the other crooks.
Mallya remains at large in London, cocky as ever, with his ever-eclectic hairdo. Roy has tried a mix of chutzpah and PR to wiggle his way of Supreme Court-mandated USD 4 bn penalties. He seems to have got away lightly.
Dodgy experts
Just as interesting as the character sketches of these unscrupulous gentlemen are the ‘experts’ who offer seemingly profound and self-righteous opinion.
One of whom, I personally knew about a decade ago. A flashy greenhorn, he sported a conspicuous American accent. After he was done shooting his gab at press conferences, he would quietly and regularly approach me for summaries that he could quickly file.
We then come across footage of Arnab Goswami asking some tough questions of Mallya- even though Goswami himself isn’t answering too many difficult queries today.
A couple of other TV journalists also show up extensively. Both are now high-end corporate lobbyists.
A lifestyle journalist is at least honest enough to state that Modi was clean as a whistle so long as he advertised in the publication. Socialites Nisha Jamwaal and Shobha De have no qualms critiquing the same gentlemen whose lavish parties they unfailingly attended.
Tip of the iceberg
The three Bad Boy Billionaires are only emblems for the deep rot in our society.
They have been vilified only because they were caught.
Much bigger ones hide in plain sight.
Underpinning identified and unidentified white-collar criminals is a whole invisible ecosystem of corruption, mediocrity, and subservience.
As much as the big fish, we the common folk are guilty of blissful, often wilful ignorance, because it suited us, helped us achieve our aspirations by proxy.
How many of us paused to question the fundamentals of the glamorous Kingfisher Airlines, the opulence of Amby Valley or the darkness behind the glitter of Nirav Modi’s diamonds?
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