Software icon NR Narayana Murthy on Sunday criticised protests in Karnataka over the verdict for the sharing of Cauvery waters, saying the matter needed to be fought in courts and shutdowns over it were futile.
"I have been saying for the last 25 years...If our country has to progress, agitations, strikes, burning buses, thrashing those who go to schools...These things do not take us forward," the chief mentor of Infosys Technologies said.
Murthy was responding to a question at a press conference, after President APJ Abdul Kalam's visit to the Infosys campus here, on why the firm chose to function during a recent bandh called by political parties to protest the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's award.
"If you want to win that (Cauvery issue), you have to make sure that you argue (in courts and the Cauvery Tribunal) with all data and make sure that in the future, whatever action plan you have to take, you have to take in Delhi," the elder statesman of the Indian IT industry said.
"That action plan has to be in Delhi, the action plan has to be in Supreme Court, that action plan has to be somewhere else. The solution is not closing down Bangalore (by organising bandhs)...Karnataka not only loses Cauvery water, it also loses revenue for a day. What a silly thing," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"That action plan has to be in Delhi, the action plan has to be in Supreme Court, that action plan has to be somewhere else. The solution is not closing down Bangalore (by organising bandhs)...Karnataka not only loses Cauvery water, it also loses revenue for a day. What a silly thing," he said.
{{/usCountry}}When a reporter said Karnataka had provided land to Infosys to house its headquarters and other facilities and the firm had worked during the band, Murthy retorted: "Nobody has given it for free. We have purchased (the land) by paying money. Please don't talk about it. Everybody has paid for the land. Nobody is doing anybody a favour."
Murthy added: "No point in saying I (the company) will close down (during a bandh). Who is the winner because of closing down? Oh! My god."