Futile ruckus

Futile ruckus

The Hindu Business Line

THOSE who thought the initial criticism of Infosys Mentor, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, by Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, chief of the Janata Dal (Secular), about his alleged ineffectiveness as the Chairman of the Bangalore International Authority (BIA), was made on the spur of the moment must be sorely disappointed by the way the issue has snowballed to the point of no return on both sides.

Mr Murthy's resignation as the Chairman of the BIA has been followed by the launching of further broadsides against him by Mr Gowda.

It is clear that Mr Gowda's attack is no impulsive outburst but the culmination of long simmering alienation and antipathy. Although he started off calling Mr Murthy a do-nothing Chairman, he soon piled up other grouses such as appropriation by Infosys of enormous areas of prime land, some falling within the Green Belt, and even went so far as to belittle its claims regarding creation of jobs, comparing it adversely with other IT sector companies.

The real provocation for all this seems to be his suspicion that the former Chief Minister, Mr S. M. Krishna, and Mr Murthy were somehow conspiring to bring down the Congress-JD(S) Government in Karnataka. In Mr Gowda's eyes, the very resignation of Mr Murthy from the BIA's chairmanship is in furtherance of that conspiracy, with Mr Krishna being out to exploit it as "the last weapon" to undermine the coalition.

Thus there is no doubt that Mr Murthy has been caught in the political crossfire in the war Mr Gowda is waging to build up and bolster his party and dominate the State's political equations and power-play. However, the present impasse may also have something to do with professionals — and achievers, in particular, among them — being generally out of sync with the susceptibilities of politicians.

For instance, where they are concerned, it is not enough to be convinced oneself of the rightness or adequacy of one's actions, especially if it is for a public cause, but one must strive constantly to create public and political awareness of one's efforts. Also, one should keep equal distance from politicians of all hues, as getting too close to one is seen as plotting against the rest.

Without going into whether Mr Murthy fuelled Mr Gowda's ire in these respects, all one can say is that in the larger interests of the State and the country, the sooner the curtain is brought down on this futile ruckus, the better.