Rohan Murty comment: Jairam is setting cat among his fellow pigeons

How much ever NR Narayana Murthy clarifies about appointment of son Rohan Murty as his executive assistant at Infosys, the controversy just refuses to die down.

The latest to join the bandwagon criticising the development at Infosys is Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh.

Ramesh has told Economic Times that the appointment of Murty Junior at Infosys is raising serious conflict of interest.

“Why should we blame the poor MPs?” he has been quoted as saying in the report. He doesn’t see any difference between Narayana Murthy appointing his son as his assistant and politicians appointing their kin in plum positions.

[caption id=“attachment_857601” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The latest to join the bandwagon criticising the development at Infosys is Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh. PTI[/caption]

“This conflict of interest business is a very, very serious issue in Indian politics and government, and Narayana Murthy has demonstrated that it is a serious issue in the Indian corporate sector. There is serious conflict of interest in media as well,” he has told the news paper.

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The first question the comment raises is why should a rural development minister comment on a corporate matter. Those who hold this view will naturally argue that the minister, known for making controversial comments, is once again attempting to kick up another storm and attract attention.

For argument’s sake, even if one accepts this, isn’t there a fact in what he says? There is and Ramesh should get full marks for making this comment, while many experts have chosen to keep mum about the issue. That too despite a few proxy advisory firms raising the issue.

But by and large people have decided to overlook this, for practical reasons.

“So what? Everybody does it. Politicians do it. Why can’t a coporate leader do it?,” said one of the comments on an article that raised the governance problems in the developments at Infosys.

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In fact, favouritsm in India has been institutionalised. So are conflict of interest issues. One could even say that even Narayana Murthy and Infosys–with impeccable reputation in maintaining transparent corporate governance practices–have fallen for this means the issue is really serious and it is high time that somebody took note of it.

Reading in this context, what Ramesh has said is an unpalatable truth that everybody knows but refuses to acknowledge.

More importantly, he is also setting the cat among his fellow pigeons. It would have hurt many of them.