So whatøs the real story?
You don`t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
The week that has just gone by was meandering along aimlessly. For the first four days leader writers, the poor dears, couldn`t get anything solid to bite on. Then, Mr Deve Gowda stepped in to effect a last-minute rescue. He said some very nasty things about Mr Narayana Murthy, the mentor of Infosys and the chairman of the Bangalore International Airport, who promptly quit in a huff.
That was enough. Off went the leader-writing brigade in full pursuit. The general refrain was the same. Deve Gowda bad man, Narayana Murthy good man, Bangalore down the tube, politics is the bane of everything in this country.
The tones varied of course, from the hysterical to the measured. But the message was the same - well almost, except for The Telegraph, which struck a different note. It asked why Mr Narayan Murthy should have been made the head of the aiport project in the first place when he had no expertise in the area.
"This storm over an airport has deflected attention from the main question that should be asked: what is Mr Narayana Murthy doing, in the first place, as the chairman of the Bangalore International Airport project? He is without doubt one of the two most distinguished names in the world of information technology in India. But this does not make him an expert on the making of airports. He is also not an investor in the project, and neither is he a known expert in the field of civil aviation and transport. He was invited to be chairman of the project for his eminence in a field that has little to do with the building of an airport of international standards. Mr Narayana Murthy`s expertise will be essential for the functioning of a top class airport but not for its making."
The Hindu pointed out that "decision-making on infrastructure in Karnataka needs to extricate itself from the DIVersion the highly personalised Deve Gowda-N.R. Narayana Murthy-S.M. Krishna controversy represents." Good point, except that it implicitly endorsed Mr deve Gowda`s defence that he had nothing against Mr Narayana Murthy but was only pointing out that "Infosys, is making common cause with Mr S M Krishna, former Chief Minister and current Governor of Maharashtra, (who)has chosen a "path of confrontation" with Karnataka`s coalition Government. He has accused his bete noir of trying to use the Narayana Murthy resignation to destabilise the State Government." From this acceptance of a specious justification, it went on to appeal to everyone to get on with the real task at hand, namely, building the airport.
The Express was its usual shrill self. "What`s with H.D . Deve Gowda, it asked, why has he made it his personal business to target Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy?" It went on, "Deve Gowda`s smear campaign is powered by a desire to appear as a champion of rural interests willing to take on the Infosys Goliath. The man, who once famously declared himself a "humble farmer", has turned into a humble framer… the effort to present two Karnatakas at odds with each other is not just faulty, it is patently dishonest. To pretend that the emergence of a thriving Infosys goes against rural interests, or to argue that better infrastructure for Bangalore comes at the cost of Karnataka`s development is to see such growth as a zero sum game."
The Deccan Herald took its cudgel to the chief minister of Karnataka, Mr Dharam Singh. " The Chief Minister`s shameful silence is as distressing as Mr Gowda`s shoddy behaviour. He has failed to clarify issues and to speak up on behalf of Mr Murthy, whose contribution to Karnataka, indeed India, has been remarkable."
It was left to the Pioneer to make the only valid point. " 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… 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."
contact: Darius.Nakhoonwala@gmail.com
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