April 11, 2007
Anthem Row: Karnataka Legislators Demand Action Against Murthy
Bangalore
Members of the Karnataka legislative assembly Wednesday repeated
their demand for action against Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana
Murthy for "disrespecting" the national anthem during President
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visit to the company's campus in Mysore Sunday.
While Murthy had apologised Tuesday, legislators cutting across
party lines urged the state government for the second consecutive
day to initiate action against him, as his clarification "confirmed"
the tech icon had indeed shown disrespect to the anthem.
"Murthy's apology over his remarks that the anthem was not sung to
avoid embarrassment to foreign interns who were present at the
function only confirms he had shown disrespect to the anthem,"
Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha president Vatal Nagaraj said.
Nagaraj also demanded the government to spell out the action it
would initiate against Murthy.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member G.V. Sriramareddy
accused Murthy of showing disrespect to the nation, while H.D.
Basavaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the apology
should not be accepted and legal action should be initiated against
him.
Ruling Janata Dal (Secular) legislator H.D. Venkatesh advised the
state government not to give any more land or other facilities to
Infosys for "insulting" the anthem by playing its instrumental
version in the presence of the President.
Intervening in the debate, Home Minister M.P. Prakash said he had
sought a report from police on the incident in which Murthy defended
the playing of the instrumental version of the anthem.
Prakash advised the members to exercise restraint and assured them
of an appropriate response after getting the report on the incident.
After members of both the legislative houses protested Murthy's
remarks, the latter issued a statement Tuesday saying: "If my
comments have hurt anybody's sentiments, I apologise.
"We have always kept the interest of India foremost in our minds and
our work speaks for itself. We are a proud Indian company, with
strong universal ethos of transparency, accountability and honesty.
"It has always been our endeavour to represent India with the
highest standards of respect and enable it to take its rightful
place in the world economy," Murthy said in the statement.
Murthy's reasoning for allowing the anthem to be played out on an
electronic instrument instead of singing it by Infoscians to avoid
causing embarrassment to foreign interns, undergoing training at the
Infosys' global education centre in the campus, sparked off a spate
of protests and angry reactions from bloggers, writers and social
and political activists.
To the surprise of all, including Kalam's, the anthem, sung twice -
at the beginning and the end of the President's function as per
protocol, was played out with instruments, instead of being sung
orally by the organisers.
"We had originally planned to field five employees to sing the
anthem before and after the function. As over 100 interns from
Malaysia were also present on the occasion, we decided to play the
anthem to avoid any embarrassment to the overseas trainees, who were
not acquainted with it and would have remained mute spectators,"
Murthy told reporters then.
As a result, when Kalam and the 2,800-odd young techies in the
semi-circular amphitheatre began to sing the anthem, the deafening
musical tones of the song from 1,000-watt loud speakers drowned
their voices.
"We played the instrumental version of the anthem so that we could
all sing along. We wished to share the pride of being an Indian in
the gracious presence of our president. We were informed that this
was as per the protocol," Murthy pointed out.
Kalam, the first Indian president to visit the Infosys campus,
interacted with the company's interns and addressed the gathering on
the occasion.
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