While his fellow MPs got involved in a slugfest over just how Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya had managed to leave the country though several banks moved the Supreme Court to recover debts of up to Rs. 9,000 crore, he seems to have followed the rule book in terms of parliamentary procedure for availing leave.
“The last day that Mr. Mallya attended Parliament was March 1; the rule book says that only if a member has missed or is likely to miss 10 sittings — not days — of Parliament, does he/she need to take permission from the presiding officer. The sittings from March 2 to 16 (the last day of the session) number exactly 10 days,” a senior Rajya Sabha official said.
The long weekend, with the Mahashivratri holiday on Monday, kept him within the deadline of not having to seek permission for leave. There is an advisory for MPs travelling abroad that they have to inform the Ministry of External Affairs, but in this, it seems, Mr. Mallya was remiss. Inside and outside Parliament, however, nobody seemed to care for this fidelity to the Rajya Sabha rule book. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of “helping” Mr. Mallya.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rejected the charge, instead reminded him of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, said to be involved in the Bofors case, who managed to leave the country during the Congress rule.
