A year ago, the name Vijay Mallya evoked a response very different from what it does today in Parliament House.
Now, "he owes banks 9000 crore and now has gone to England." Then, the biggest talking point was the cars Mallya owned.
One day in 2014 he drove up in a black beauty. Journalists and securitymen waiting outside drooled. Those who knew him walked up as he smoothly eased out of the rear door and shut it with a sound that only a hand-crafted set of wheels will emit. It was an Italian masterpiece - a Maserati quattroporte with a V6 3 litre engine that had enough horse power to propel the car like a rocket from 0-100 kmph in less than 5 seconds and a top speed of 290 kmph.
Vijay Mallya indulgently explained the features. The sighs were deeper than those witnessed when he had brought a "purring" Maybach to Parliament. The Parliament Watch and Ward staff greeted him warmly as he walked in.
I next met the Rajya Sabha MP in a sitting room adjacent to the Central Hall in the monsoon session of 2015. The Houses had been adjourned due to disruptions. Many MPs were there, coffee cups in hand, munching on the very popular toasted multi-grain bread.
Mallya was not in his usual flamboyant whites - he wore a linen shirt with a green Jawahar jacket that day. And was unusually mild, visibly uncomfortable. As though the rising losses and debts had taken some fizz out of the liquor baron. He started talking about the disruptions in Parliament but other MPs nudged him towards a conversation about his crashing business.
He talked about how tough the airline business was. How his rivals were short-changing flyers. Lawmakers from Left parties in the group egged him to first pay his employees who he owed 150 crore odd.
Suddenly the door opened and Ashok Gajapati Raju, Civil Aviation Minister, walked in. I kept my eyes on Mallya. His first reaction was a fresh wave of discomfort. After a few minutes it was clear that he was making small talk but attempting a rendezvous with the minister, hoping, yet not very hopeful.
Gajapati Raju is the erstwhile Raja of what was the Vijayanagaram kingdom - known to be disarmingly simple man. I saw him smiling, knowingly. "Sure you can come and see me some time. I am here during the session. Are you here?" the minister asked Mallya.
When Raju got up to leave the room, Mallya tailed him out.
Today in Parliament, I remembered the Civil Aviation Minister's question to Mallya, who is in England. I had seen him walk inside from gate number 12, which leads to the Rajya Sabha on March 1. That was nearly 36 hours before he left India, 48 hours before a consortium of 17 banks went to the Supreme Court seeking to recover the money lent to his companies.
60 hours after his departure for England made headlines, we heard from MPs that he was trying to meet ministers and senior opposition leaders. But the headwinds had turned stronger; he couldn't get an audience.
The catering staff at the Central Hall remembers Mallya for his "big tips." They suppress sniggers as they relate how most MPs reacted to him warmly or tried to strike a relationship back then. Central Hall generates a lot of legends and gossip. The staff knows and hears a lot, but is very discreet. They know how MPs would discuss details of Vijay Mallya's lavish parties, attempt to get invites, discuss his yatch, aircrafts and, in more hushed voices, his Kingfisher calendar shoot. One Diwali, he had gifted bottles of premium whisky to all MPs.
But the staff also says Mallya was rarely seen in Parliament. Records prove that. Since 2010, in his second stint in the Upper House or Rajya Sabha, Vijay Mallya had just 30 per cent attendance. Which doesn't mean that he was at work all those days that he was marked present. On many occasions, Mallya did what many do regularly - come to the Parliament, mark their attendance and leave.
His term is about to end and he has not participated in a single debate and has asked just 210 odd questions. A lot of them about civil aviation. His attendance is half of the average attendance recorded by MPs. The number of questions he has asked is about 100 less than an MP asks on an average in the same time period. He chose parliament committees to be a member of carefully. He is a member of the panel for the Commerce Ministry and one for Civil Aviation, which of course raises questions about conflict of interest.
Mallya's colleague in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress' Raj Babbar said, "people from different fields come to the Rajya Sabha. By siphoning funds, not paying employees and then leaving for England one day before a consortium of 17 banks went to the Supreme Court to recover their money, he has brought disrepute to the field he represents."
Another Rajya Sabha MP with serious business interests, T Subirami Reddy said, "there is nothing wrong in people like Mallya entering the Rajya Sabha. They can contribute."
Mallya's entry into the Rajya flagged a now established trend - mixing business with politics. Many have done it. The trend became more popular since economic liberalisation started weakening the virtual oligarchy-like hold of old business families like the Tatas and Birlas.
The new men on the block were more aggressive, flashier and with fewer old world values. Business houses have funded politics from the days of the Independence struggle. Now businessmen wanted to be politicians as a seat in politics meant easier access to the corridors of power, insight into policy and less red tape for businessmen turned lawmakers. If KK Birla and Rahul Bajaj were old school, the Rajya Sabha benches have also seated industrialists like Anil Ambani, RP Goenka, Raj Kumar Dhoot, Anu Aga, Rajiv Chandrashekhar and KD Singh.
The rise of regional parties too has contributed. Big parties face a lot of internal pressure to accommodate cadres, so they are unable to allot seats and ticket to outsiders. Smaller regional parties have low national stakes. Vijay Mallya's key support has come from the JDS in Karnataka - his first term was backed by the Congress and the JDS, the second by the JDS and the BJP.
Rival parties have long charged each other with "striking deals" and "selling Rajya Sabha "seats. Perhaps the change post what is being called Mallyagate, is an admission that businessmen "use parliament".
Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad says, "this case shows political parties now need to scrutinise who they are bringing to the Rajya Sabha - people who promote parliamentary democracy or promote their business."
So will the good times in politics end for Mr Money Bags? I am not betting on it. Yet.
(Rahul Shrivastava is Senior Editor, Political Affairs NDTV 24x7)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.