Vishal Sikka and Sheldon Pollock head two different institutions associated with Infosays, but they represent the root cause of ongoing crisis in the IT giant of India
Sandeep Singh
“Today the biggest bottleneck to the growth of a corporation is availability of good talent. Therefore, we have to attract talent wherever possible, throughout the world. We have to use the entire world as our arena”; thus said N.R. Narayana Murthy on 19th August 2011, the day he retired as Chairman of Infosys.
(http://www.livemint.com/Home-Page/Fjt6fqaRjUOwxmsOq3W2zK/NR-Narayana-Murthy–The-biggest-challenge-is-the-availabi.html)
On 7 November 2012, in another interview while answering the question, Are Indian CEOs overpaid, or have they earned it? He said: I would not say they are overpaid in general but there is definitely a need for introspection by them whether their pay is fair in the context of India.
(http://www.businesstoday.in/opinion/interviews/narayana-murthy-interview-on-ceo-executive-compensation/story/189648.html)
Between the two answers of Narayana Murthy one can find the reason of mess Infosys is in today.
Narayan Murthy and other founders have not raised questions on Infosys performance, but they have raised the question on pay hikes, exit payouts, use of private jets etc. Pay hikes and exit payouts offered by Infosys, and use of private jet is very common across Western corporate world. The same western corporate world from where Narayan Murthy got the talent i.e. Vishal Sikka (who was an executive board member of Germany’s SAP,) to head the Infosys (and other senior management along with him) and like a typical liberal he is passing on the blame to the board of directors. Normally, a person will behave according to the culture he is coming from. Narayana Murthy and other founders can’t claim now that they were not aware that this crisis was coming. And if they were really not aware of it, then it is they who should take the blame and not pass it on to the board, because in the first place they allowed the appointment of Vishal Sikka.
Narayan Murthy had to say the following about the board “They are all good-intentioned people of high integrity but even good people make mistakes,” he says. “Good leadership demands they listen to all shareholders and address concerns take corrective action and improve governance.”
(http://www. moneycontrol.com/ news/business/infosys-live-updates-u-turn-by-murthy-reports-say-truceboardsight_8478301.html?utm_source=ref_article)
The statement looks as if he is adopting a conciliatory tone (after realising that shareholders and investors are on the side of Board
and CEO).
Anyway the damage done to Infosys by Narayana Murthy is insignificant compared to what his son Rohan Murthy is doing to Hindu civilisation with similar thought process.
The Murty Classical Library of India began publishing classics of Indian literature in January 2015. The books, which are in dual-language format with the original language and English facing, are published by Harvard University Press. The Columbia University scholar, Sheldon Pollock, is the library’s general editor. The library was established through a $5.2 million gift from Rohan Murty.
In March 2016, a petition initiated by Indian scholars demanded that Sheldon Pollock be removed from the editorship of the Murty Classical Library of India.For his anti-India interests which Rohan Murty denied The petition cited Rajiv Malhotra’s book The Battle for Sanskrit, in which Pollock is a major topic. Rajiv Malhotra criticizes Pollock for his methodologies, which are not being led by a religious point of view, and uses political philology which unearths “social abuses in the texts (against dalits, women, Muslims) as the predominant quality of
those texts”.
In a response, Rohan Murty made clear that Sheldon Pollock will continue his position, saying that the library will commission the “best possible scholar for that particular language. We will not judge on nationality, gender, race, creed or colour.”
Rohan Murty’s comment sounds similar to Narayana Murthy’s statement: “we have to attract talent wherever possible, throughout the world. We have to use the entire world as our arena.”
Very soon, Rohan Murty, like his father may realise that Pollock is not “fair in the context of India”. Prof Bharat Gupt had expressed this beautifully in his open letter to Rohan Murty where he wrote: “I have admiration for the scholarship of Prof. Sheldon Pollock but the fact that such an endowment should have been made to a foreign university smacks of total mistrust in the abilities of Indian scholars, their institutions and their ability to execute the task. I do not blame Prof. Pollock, as he is working well in the interest of his language and his culture.”
(http://indiafacts. org/open-letter-sri-rohan-murthy/)
One can only hope that both Shri Narayan Murthy and his son Rohan Murty take a lesson from the fiasco at Infosys and put an immediate break to damage caused to Hindu civilisation through their funding of Pollock or else some day in near future they will be fighting a similar battle at Murty Classical Library.
(The writer is founder of Swastik.net.in)
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