Vijay Mallya is tweeting that he is not an absconder. Dharma guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who claims to teach the art of living, is claiming that he will not pay the fine of Rs 5 crore even if he is sent to jail. The question is, how can you compare a high priest of materialism and a spiritual guru? The common factor – both these people who shoot off their mouths have the patronage of the powers-that-be. The world knows that a prominent minister in Modi’s government played a big role in getting Mallya out of the country. This minister hails from south India and has been friends with Mallya since the time the latter wanted to come into the Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate with JDS’ assistance. Deve Gowda’s party could get him merely seven votes, and the rest of 34 votes could have come only from the BJP. Then this BJP leader solved the problem for Mallya by putting in a word with Arun Jaitley, who was then the BJP prabhari from Karnataka. It is said that Mallya returned the favour, and floored with him his private yacht, stays in luxury hotels, and expensive gifts. During that time, some intimate moments were also caught by the camera, which were enough to bargain with the minister at a later date. Sources say it was because of the pressure from the minister that the CBI had to change the language of its lookout notice for Mallya. For his flight to London, the immigration office also behaved kindly with Mallya. The world also saw how the prime minister braved nature’s several obstacles (storms and hail) and made it to Sri Sri’s programme venue, enjoyed it, and gave a powerful speech as well. Then there’s the matter of people from Sri Sri’s team refusing to pay the fine slapped by the NGT, saying it was a religious organisation and didn’t have that kind of money. It was then that a news channel nurturing the Congress and Left’s ideology, started to pore into the bank accounts of Sri Sri’s organisation. With that, it became clear how rich the religious guru really is. The channel came under fire, and the first instalment of Rs 25 lakh was paid. The PM’s heart also softened and the ruling party became free to shower its affection.