New Delhi: Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that the Vijay Mallya episode will not affect the image of Indian corporates abroad as such incidents could be found in almost all countries.
“All over the world, corporate misconduct happens. You have heard of so many different stories all over the world... it did not happen only in India. And just that one incident cannot be reflective of all the good work, which is being done by so many good companies, which are not just in India but also carrying the flag abroad,” she said.
The minister was responding to a question whether the Mallya episode will dent India’s image among investors. She, however, said the nation could learn lessons and take steps to prevent recurrence of such corporate misdemeanours in future.
“Many multinationals from India today are performing all over the world. So I don’t think it will have a bad impact although we can use that as an example where if there are lessons to be learned about how we need to have a bit more due diligence, we need to do the course correction,” he said.
Mr Mallya, whose group company owes over Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks, had left the country on March 4 and currently is in the UK. His financial dealings are being probed by several investigative agencies, including CBI, Enforcement Directorate and tax department.
Ms Sitharaman was also critical about Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s comments on Make in India campaign. “Rahul Gandhi should come up with “substantive arguments” to criticise the government’s Make In India programme rather than ridiculing its logo,” she said.
“Demagoguery may be good in election campaigns. But when you are in Parliament, we expect you to come up with concrete criticisms for which we will give reply. But to throw something like this may amuse some members. But overall it just projects the leader as not having gone into greater details,” she said.
