In his first major newspaper outing after being charged with sexual harassment (Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, January 17, 2003) and his subsequent exit from Infosys, US-based whiz kid Phaneesh Murthy quoted the hoary tale about two priests being asked by a young woman to carry her across a stream. The younger of the two priests obliged. When some time later, the older priest rebuked him for having touched a woman, the younger one responded that he had forgotten her after putting her down but the older priest still seemed to carry her in his mind.
Phaneesh Murthy said this in response to a question about his relationship with his former mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, but he could well have been referring to the harassment charge filed by his former secretary Reka Maximovitch, which he would want everyone to forget. The business press in India may not exactly be blanking out the controversy, but it certainly seems to be going out of its way in trying to wipe out the smear that has besmirched his professional reputation.
The iGATE Solutions CEO and former Infosys Director faced a first sexual harassment lawsuit from Maximovich, another former Infosys employee, in July last year, which forced his exit from the company as its director. A USD three million out-of-court-settlement was reached by Infosys and Murthy with her in April this year, a few months after which he joined the IT major iGATE Global Solutions. Subsequently another former Infosys woman employee in US levelled another sexual harassment charge against him which he described as garbage, and vowed to fight.
From that first story in the Corporate Dossier in January 2003 to a Lunch With BS feature in Business Standard on 9 December 2003, it has been one long year of fantastic press for Murthy. The token mention in each article of the Maximovitch case has been more akin to the statutory warning on cigarette packets. Most articles have portrayed Phaneesh as the victim of a conspiracy or characterized the episode as the result of some immaturity on his part. Take the latest piece in Business Standard. After quoting Phaneesh Murthy putting "it all down to `immaturity’, not having handled something like this earlier", Subir Roy then goes on to say: "He does not say it but you get the feeling that the immaturity and the mistakes he talks about go right back to the way he handled the relationship in the first place." It’s almost as if `immaturity’ is an extenuating factor.
Should a sexual misconduct be allowed to eclipse an otherwise illustrious professional career? No. Should a person’s misdemeanour be held against him for the rest of his life? No. Should he not be allowed to get on with life? Yes, he should. So what is wrong with the coverage of Phaneesh Murthy by the business press? In all those reams of newsprint (and television footage) devoted to eulogising Phaneesh Murthy’s undeniable professional brilliance, what comes across is that the press seems to have kept its objectivity aside and has let itself be used as a vehicle for Operation Resurrection.
`Primed for Success’ was the headline blazoned across the Corporate Dossier story, barely a month after Murthy had set up his own consultancy, Primentor, along with wife Jaya. It’s hard to recall any other case when someone - albeit well-known - has got such a splash for starting a new venture. The feature was split into three parts spread over two pages. Murthy explained his business plans in one (which would have been the normal treatment for any new venture by a whiz kid), wife Jaya insisted that she’s still in love with him and trusts him more than she trusts herself in the second and the couple philosophized about life, friends and betrayals in the third.
That story set the tone for the rash of stories that followed in the pink papers, some general ones, the business magazines and television channels. Phaneesh Murthy almost became the latest IT guru, with the press dutifully reporting every word that he uttered on business process outsourcing and the Indian software industry’s future prospects. When he joined iGate Global Solutions as chief executive officer, it was hinted that a near-exodus of top professionals from Infosys was only because people were vying to work with Phaneesh Murthy.
Deccan Herald went far ahead of all others, gushing over the reception he got at a Nasscom seminar. "Primentor Phaneesh steals the spotlight" screamed the headline to a story which started thus: "Phaneesh Murthy, founder of Primentor, US-based consulting firm, is back with a bang and wants India to have at least 50 IT companies with revenues of at least $1billion by 2010." The report went on to say that "though he was forced to quit Infosys on an alleged sexual harrasement case, he was most sought after speaker at the Nasscom 2003 conference here with several participants flocking to him to know more about IT and BPO prospects in US and also exchanging visiting cards with him for further consultation."
The subtle message in all this is that the sexual harassment charge didn’t matter since the industry was giving him the thumbs up. The controversy was made out to be a personal matter. The point it seems to be missing is that the charge was that Phaneesh Murthy had used his official position to harass someone.
This is not to discount Phaneesh Murthy’s brilliance as a professional or deny him the chance to put past demons behind him. But the adulatory treatment that the Indian press has given him contrasts sharply with another charge of sexual harassment against another celebrity - supercop K.P.S. Gill. Gill was accused of pinching a lady IAS officer’s bottom at a party. The lady walked out of the party and filed a police complaint. The press went to town over the incident, heaping opprobrium on Gill and debating whether he should be suspended and removed from his post as Director General of Police in Punjab. His brilliant career record, a majority of the press said, was no excuse for letting him continue in office for this misdemeanour. While Phaneesh Murthy’s professional competence has in no way been marred by the sexual harassment case, in Gill’s case, that one incident was touted as proof that the women of Punjab were in danger of having their modesty outraged if he were not removed.
Gill’s case was complicated by the fact that human rights groups and women’s groups spearheaded the protests against him. Phaneesh Murthy is lucky no lobby has taken up the incident involving him. But why should the press suspend its powers of thinking and let itself be used to resurrect one individual? And why should it use one yardstick for politicians and bureaucrats and another one for business persons?
Contact: seetha60@yahoo.com