People's support pours in for NRN

You can wake up one who’s asleep, not who’s pretending to be
The Times of India

NR Narayana Murthy, Ramesh Ramanathan and other well-meaning citizens of Bangalore make a presentation to the de jure and de facto chief minister in good faith. They emphasise on the need to end the artificial divide created by politicians between urban and rural Karnataka and how the development of Bangalore and other cities’ infrastructure will provide much-needed resources for development of rural Karnataka. Then, just like someone who has listened to the Ramayana the whole night and says Rama is the uncle of Sita, Deve Gowda says there is a wrong impression that the coalition government is neglecting infrastructure development of Bangalore! It is true that one can wake up someone who is really asleep but not someone who is pretending to be asleep.
— N K Raveendran, Bangalore

Let Gowda focus on farming
Narayana Murthy is a high achiever who has built a global enterprise virtually from scratch. This takes a lot of capability and intellect. He is from a middle class family and has experienced the other end of the spectrum. Deve Gowda became PM by luck and petty politics. It is unfortunate that misguided politicians ridicule Murthy’s well-intentioned advice. When he has contributed so much to the state, what’s the harm in the government allotting land? The land doesn’t belong to Deve Gowda. It is the people’s land and the government also belongs to the people. If Deve Gowda is the son of the soil, he better concentrate his energy on farming and rural sectors and not comment on things like software industry, urban governance and its favourable impact on the macroeconomic parameters in the state which would ultimately lead to prosperity. Even rural people benefit from the growth of IT. With increasing rural population, there is not enough land for everyone to pursue farming. I know many relatives in Chikmagalur district, where I hail from, who came to Bangalore, got good education and found good jobs in IT companies like Infosys. Haven’t the benefits percolated to the rural populace? It seems as though he is playing politics with this issue to create a rural-urban divide and carve out a rural vote-bank for himself.
— Gopikrishna Deshpande, Atlanta.

Where are we heading?
The latest sermons by the Prime Minister of Bangalore (Deve Gowda) make for funny reading. His naming Infosys as a virtual real estate agent is proof that his vision is limited to the outskirts of Bangalore and to expect him to broaden it to the country’s or the world’s, is an exercise in futility. He expects Infosys and other IT companies to run their business like government offices, and not on world-class infrastructure. Land grabbing, was, is and will be the sole prerogative of politicians, directly or indirectly masquerading as land sharks. We can foresee the next step of the puppet chief minister — ordering an inquiry as demanded by the PM of Bangalore or at least ordering a slow-down. Where have we got into under this duo?
— B R R Rao, Bangalore

Eye Belgaum for expansion
We want Narayana Murthy to consider Belgaum for expansion of his company and help us get many of his colleagues to set up IT and BT companies there. This will help the region grow in a dignified manner and also give much-needed boost to the development of North Karnataka. This will also reduce infrastructure burden on Bangalore and Infosys will get due recognition from all parties for initiating the process of developing rural Karnataka.
— Dilip Bhagwat, Belgaum

Gowda, retire and save us
Deve Gowda’s outburst against Infosys only threatens to stall good intentions and initiatives, like publicprivate partnerships. He has no business to politicise this process. The rift between the Congress and JD(S) is an open secret. Why did the former PM attend the presentation on Saturday to criticise it on Sunday? Why is he upset with Infosys? Why is he bringing Wipro, Intel, IBM, HP and the likes unnecessarily into this? If a political party cannot support the industry in a matter, the least it can do is not to divide the industry. What is Deve Gowda trying to convey? How can he question the business sense of Narayana Murthy who has been instrumental in taking IT and Indian IT exports to a global level? It will be better that this coalition ends immediately and people vote for a new and better government for good governance. As far as Deve Gowda is concerned, he can save all the trouble if he retires from active politics and does social service.
— Caleb David, Bangalore

DEAR Mr MURTHY...
Don’t waste time
with these people
Dear Mr Murthy, look what you have done. You thought of something positive for society and for Bangalore’s shoddy infrastructure and got accused by a politician who doesn’t think beyond land and petrol pumps. I clearly remember seeing a TV interview and was totally awestruck by your simplicity and values. Why would a mentor of a billion-dollar company, who thinks high and lives simple, devise ways to grab land? Though I don’t work in Infosys, I am your admirer and you also happen to be my role model. I have a humble request: Please don’t waste time with these people. Today, I’m really ashamed to say India had such a PM once upon a time.
— Prasad Kulkarni, via email