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Apr 6, 20237 min read

A Conversation between a Pessimist and an Optimist on the DHFL Scam

Posted on 06/04/2023 (GMT o4:20 hrs)

The optimist (O) and the pessimist (P)– both of them are victims of financial abuse caused by huge haircut as prescribed by the resolution plan presented by Mr. Ajay Piramal in the case of the DHFL Scam. Let’s hear their conversation on this issue.

P: We will never get back our money from DHFL as DHFL does not exist. It is the property of Mr. Ajay Piramal. ⤡

O: Really? Why are you saying so?

P: Because IBC is the ultimate–it is an omniscient law. None can intervene after the given resolution plan is approved by the RBI. IBC and the decision of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) are above the law.

O: If IBC is above the law, why did Mr. Piramal twice rush to judicial bodies, viz., the NCLAT and the Supreme Court, to revert back the NCLT First Order (19/05/2021) and the NCLAT second order (27/01/2022)?

P: Whatever it may be, those actions were done by Piramal to remove all the obstacles that might setback his business-plans in the future.

O: What business plans? Him knocking the doors of the judiciary every now and then— doesn’t that point to his fear of losing the bet?

P: Are you out of your mind? He has no fear. His Resolution Plan was approved by an overwhelming majority and the RBI. The Hon’ble NCLT has ruled on June 7, 2021. No further discussion is required in this regard. The case is closed.

O: You may notice that NCLAT found many material irregularities in the exercise of powers by the resolution professional and it was also found that the 18th CoC meeting was contrary to law, hence void as per the legal injunctions.

If you consider all these analyses cum observations by the NCLAT, how do you be so pessimistic regarding the return of our hard-earned life savings? If equal distribution of the concentrated wealth is not possible, it will violate the Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which provides for equality before the law. If we are deprived, the Indian Air Force, UPPCL, several Christian and Jesuit institutes, Ramakrishna Mission— they will also be deprived in an equal manner. If they get their dues, we will also.

Analogically speaking, these big institutes are riding in Jeep Wranglers, Land Rovers etc., and we are the riders of fragile auto-rickshaws. If they could cross a narrow lane, why can’t we?

P: Stop using analogies to lighten the grave seriousness of this matter. We are already so distressed that such stories won’t help.

I must tell you that those mistaken, flawed observations of the NCLAT you have mentioned have been definitively stayed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the 11th of April, 2022. What’s your problem, dude?

O: The problem is with the fluid IBC, which has been amended multiple times. The Standing Committee of the Parliament has questioned the conduct of the CoCs under the IBC. The Finance Ministry has asked about the phenomenon of such big haircuts under the IBC. What does the Section 66 of the IBC say? Doesn’t it also provide for the benefit of all the financial creditors?

Moreover, Piramal suspended all his social media activities for a fortnight after the fact of him using dubious names: Piramal CHFL and/or Piramal Finance⤡ on the social and print media platforms was revealed by some of the DHFL Victims. What was the need for the same if he is legally clean? What’s his fear? What’s his anxiety? Why does he keep his profiles locked? Is he guilty of buying a 45k crore worth company for only a rupee? Is he trying to get away from the trouble that he himself created with the help of his close relatives of the Ambani family?

Bankruptcies such as the DHFL scam or the general breakdown of the financial machinery are inevitable within Nazism aka Fascism. Alas! They share an inextricable bond!

P: I don’t think these emotive outbursts are going to work. Simply speaking, I feel that he has received and is still receiving immense aid from the ruling political party. That party is going to be re-elected in the coming elections. So, there is no hope at all. Let’s all commit suicide collectively⤡! Give me some Pentobarbital or Nembutal!

O: Don’t utter such things! These are prohibited drugs in India. Only physicians may use it at the time of anesthesia. However, you can get it from Adani’s Mundra Port where 350kgs of Narcotics were recovered!

Apart from that, what made you think that the present ruling party is going to prosper? The Hindenburg report on Modani (Modi+Adani), the BBC Documentary on Modi, Supreme Court’s dissents against the central government, findings about the Pegasus Software, suppressing the Opposition’s voice, telling blatant lies and so on… have taken off its masks, its disguise. If mass mobilization takes place, no one can stop a political revolution.

P: You are politicizing⤡ it too much! It is a financial case.

O: You are the one who mentioned the political dimension. If this was not a political affair, how would you explain the alleged Dawood Ibrahim-Iqbal Mirchi-Dheeraj Realty-DHFL-BJP collusion or nexus? What about the huge amount of donations, 28 crores or more, that the ex-promoters of DHFL were forced to make to the ruling party? Please take all the variables into account while determining the future course of this scam. I beg you to think holistically!

P: Well, even if such collusion is actually the case, that does not prevent Piramal from enjoying his entitlement of the DHFL! He has started disbursing the bad loans of DHFL already. If he wasn’t the owner, how could he possibly do that?

O: Good point. To answer that, just view the share prices of the Piramal Group. It is all bearish! How would you explain that? Listen to the dissenting DHFL home loan-takers who haven’t received documents from the Piramals as of yet! What do all these signify? Piramal is stuck due to the various legal cases. His road is evidently bumpy.

P: Bumpy? The NCLAT on January 2022 did set aside NCLT’s first order which said that the Wadhawan’s settlement proposal for full repayment should be considered by the CoC. Are you dreaming? Don’t dwell in bad faith!

O: Yes, I forgot to mention. Thank you for bringing that up. The NCLT’s impugned order, though dismissed, is archived and the points still bear its value on the fate of the financial creditors of DHFL. If you remember, Piramal and the CoC rushed to the NCLAT to get the said NCLT order revoked within days without even bothering to answer the NCLT first within the stipulated time period. Is this not a contempt of court? Piramal is in grave danger. Do you know that none of the charges against DHFL’s ex-promoters, the Wadhawan brothers, could be proved and they are currently on bail, as per the Supreme Court’s order on 27th March, 2023?

P: It is all about lobby– his connections with the uppermost tiers of the administrative hierarchy. His filthy amount of money is going to speak at the end of the day, not the cry of the DHFL victims. I am cursing him and his family for depriving us, for looting us, for putting us into mental trauma, for destroying our physical health, for playing with our future. God will punish him for his papa karma.

O: I don’t wish to invoke the issue of divine providence, but would like to argue in the interest of justice alone. Distributive justice dictates that such business-related rights should be upheld in the case of infringement of the same in the hands of superrich business barons. If we do not get justice in our wounded India⤡, we will have to approach the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the OHCHR, with our plea.

P: Justice in the international forum? You’re kidding, right? No such forum is interested to hear the internal matters relating to the economy of our third-world nation. See, how the superrich wilful defaulters Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and the others are roaming scott free— their loans have been waived off in the name of writing off by the RBI. None said anything. The poor get the gallows, while the rich mostly escape.

O: Really? The international forums like V-Dem Institute, Freedom House, Open Society Foundations, Amnesty International, Oxfam have all come up with several reports that have clearly highlighted the plutocratic state of affairs in India at the time of crony and monopoly capitalism⤡ acting under the garb of religious extremism!

P: Why do those forums need to poke their nose into our internal matters?

O: International law is the vanishing point of jurisprudence. If you lose your faith in the Indian judiciary⤡, please note the recent actions of our Hon’ble CJI, Justice Chandrachud⤡. He has refused, on so many occasions, to yield to the whims/suggestions of the ruling party. Let’s educate, agitate and organize through the web-based non-violent civil-disobedience movement.

P: What if due to our social media posts, the Piramals file a defamation case asking us to repay for the damage to his reputation?

O: That won’t work. The cat would be out of the bag if he even attempts to take any such step. Study one of the recent verdicts given by the Karnataka High Court:

View an excerpt from the above report:

P: I still think that such social media actions won’t lead us anywhere. All the emails or digital posters will be definitely thrown into the dustbin. No use of wasting our energy. We need physical mass movement…although it doesn’t seem like a possibility.

O: At the time of the cyber-explosion, we can organize ourselves through means that do not involve physical proximity, since the DHFL Victim population is disporic, i.e., spread or scattered over the globe; furthermore, most of the DHFL victims are non-tech savvy senior citizens. We need to keep that in mind as well. Go through the examples of the Occupy Movement in America, the Arab Spring Uprisings and so on. Dum spiro spero: where there is life, there is hope!

P: I am now being able to see a ray of hope in the all-engulfing dreary darkness due to this crony governance!

SEE ALSO (FOR THE FACTUAL GROUNDS OF THIS CONVERSATION):

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