MP who returned Mallya’s whisky, had accepted Kingfisher calendar

The Diwali season seems to have kicked off with fireworks of a different kind, with BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha, Prabhat Jha, returning a bottle of Black Dog whisky gifted to him by Vijay Mallya, along with a stern letter. Jha’s action has discomfited other MPs who may otherwise have blissfully enjoyed Mallya’s spirited gift.

In fact so high is the resentment against Jha’s action, that many MPs pointed out that Jha should also return the Kingfisher calendar which Mallya had sent to many MPs as a Diwali gift last year. “It’s funny that it was only the liquor that was objected to,” a senior BJP MP said.

Jha, however, denies he received the calendar. “Others may have got it, I returned the liquor as I don’t think it’s appropriate,” he said. The calendar, on the lines of the famous Italian Pirelli calendar, is not for sale. It has bikini-clad models for every month of the year. The calendar is, in fact, quite popular with even some Left MPs.

“I can’t possibly open the calendar and hang it here, but I have kept it,” said a senior Left MP quite sheepishly. When BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad was asked whether he had returned the whisky bottle or the calendar, he feigned ignorance.

“I’ve been out of town for the last four days, I really don’t know whether I have received them,” he said. The fracas over a Diwali gift has however blown the lid off Delhi’s worst-kept secret, that expensive gifts are received on a large scale across the political spectrum, not just from political colleagues but also corporate interests.

On the anvil this year are gold coins, silver dinner sets and tea sets and, of course, bottles of liquor. “Earlier we used to send suit lengths to MPs, but in the last five years we have shifted to silver and gold,” said a corporate go-between.