Narayana Murthy stands up – Says minorities living in fear, Kalburgi's murder was great example of intolerance (Watch video)

October 31, 2015, NewsCrunch

The long suppressed communist in Narayana Murthy surfaced on Saturday prompting him to speak out strongly against the growing culture of intolerance in the country.

Taking part in an NDTV discussion, the former Infosys chairman said before we could even talk about growth, strife should be stamped out in the country.

Murthy said while he was not a politician, he could not ignore the rising intolerance, which was making minorities – both religious and regional – live in fear.

“Reality is that there is considerable fear in the minds of minorities in India,” he said.  The situation reminds him of late 1960s when Shiv Sena targeted South Indians in Mumbai, he added.

That was also the time Murthy lived in Mumbai working for Patni.

He cited Kalburgi’s murder as a great example of the rising tide of intolerance in the country.

Murthy said the first priority of any government should be to build trust in every Indian and make him feel that this was his country where he had all the rights and felt safe. Only then people would work for the betterment of India, he added.

If the government failed to build an environment of trust, peace and harmony, growth would not take place, poverty would remain and farmers would continue to commit suicide, he said.

That was the lesson of the last 300 years of development, he noted.

Narayana Murthy’s statements are significant as he had supported Modi all along. Last year, he had famously said that Gujaratriots did disqualify Mod from becoming PM.

Video: Watch Narayana Murthy saying government’s first priority is to tackle intolreance