Bangalore's bane

Bangalore's bane

The Pioneer Edit Desk

The circumstances in which Mr NR Narayana Murthy resigned from the chairmanship of Bangalore International Airport Limited, a consortium building India's first greenfield airport, does not enhance Bangalore's image as an investment destination.

The Chairman and chief mentor of Infosys has made it amply clear that his action followed a broadside delivered recently by the Janata Dal (Secular) leader and a former Prime Minister of India, HD Deve Gowda, alleging that he had not done enough to expedite the construction of the project which was cleared after a delay of five years.

Mr Deve Gowda, who has been having for some time a running battle with the Information Technology industry in Karnataka, had remarked a few days ago that Mr Murthy, a world traveller "should be able to come up with a plan to decongest Bangalore's traffic". Mr Murthy, who had made a presentation on urban government a few days earlier, was upset both by Mr Deve Gowda's attack and Chief Minister N Dharam Singh's failure to speak out in his defence.

He wrote in his resignation letter to Mr Singh, "I wish he (Mr Deve Gowda) had asked me personally before going to the press, or talked to you; or ascertained it from the members on the board. I am disappointed that a former Prime Minister did not accord me this basic courtesy I am, pained more so, that leaders in the Government like you did not even clarify my role in the company and the work that has been done."

The incident, which comes in the wake of increasing complaint about the state of Bangalore's crumbling infrastructure, will raise uncomfortable questions about the city's and Karnataka's industrial future, particularly about that of its IT sector which is already said to be looking around for greener pastures. Even if entrepreneurs working in the State survive the traffic congestion, power shortage, pollution and an assortment of other allied ills, Mr Narayana Murthy's resignation would tend to suggest that relations between the Karnataka Government and private industry has lost the mutual trust and confidence that once characterised those. Global players who have a multiplicity of investment options before them, are unlike to put their money into projects in Karnataka should the impression take root.

Mr Deve Gowda, therefore, merits criticism for the war of words he has been waging against his State's IT sector, accusing its top executives of indulging in land-grabbing. The same applies to the verbal grapeshot with which he has recently peppered Mr Murthy and his attempts to prevent the State Government from granting to Infosys the 845 acres of land it has sought. A veteran politician, he should have found a way of making his points without generating a public controversy damaging to the State.

Equally, the IT sector has a duty to Karnataka whose infrastructural resources it has used to make huge profit. While no one grudges that, it has a responsibility to plough back some of its earnings to help the State cope with the problems its own growth has caused it. Else it will be pointless to talk of business ethics.