Word: mallya
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Dates: during 2003-2003
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...What is the difference between politics and business?" Mallya demands. Noting that U.S. President George W. Bush started off as an oil executive, Mallya argues that India's political system needs a dash of businesslike efficiency. "There's no accountability in Indian politics," he growls, pointing out that although politician after politician has promised to improve Karnataka's capital of Bangalore, traffic is congested, the electricity frequently fails and pollution is getting worse...
...certainly does not shy from spending his business wealth on his political pursuits. He says he's contributed $220,000 so far to the Janata Party, although many Indian political experts suspect the actual figure is much higher. Mallya's critics, in fact, complain that he has come this far solely because of his fortune. His 2002 election to Parliament was dogged by rumors that he bribed members of a prominent political party-rumors that he denies. Nor was that his first brush with accusations of financial impropriety. In 1999 Indian officials charged that he had violated the country...
...deep pockets be enough to win him the political power-and thus the respect-that he craves? Many doubt it. "You can't buy votes in this state," says N. Gururaj, editor of the Udayavani, an influential Kannada-language newspaper. Indeed, the politics of caste still count-and Mallya, a member of a tiny mercantile caste, has yet to win over the support of any major caste in Karnataka. Certainly, many of his views should resonate with the state's hard-hit rural masses. He notes with outrage that some of the state's farmers, charged interest rates...
...Sitting in his red Mercedes, Mallya lights another cigarillo and declares that people are coming to his campaigns in ever larger numbers. What they are coming for, though, is another matter. At Kolar, unemployed young men press their faces to the tinted windows of the car, gaping at the flashing lights on his stereo system, the plush seats and the attractive women who sometimes join Mallya's extensive entourage on his whistle-stops...
...Bewildered by Mallya's unprecedented campaign, some members of Karnataka's political intelligentsia speculate that it's merely part of a cynical political conspiracy. One favorite theory is that he's being used by the state's unpopular chief minister, S.M. Krishna, to divide the opposition before the next elections. So far, however, the chattering classes have ignored the most obvious possibility: that politics in India, bringing the momentary adoration of millions, might provide thrills of self-gratification more intoxicating than those that even the greatest wealth...