Murthy's relative in Infosys' Board

Seshasayee has now responded to Murthy's uncomplementary reference to him. Murthy will react to this. The war of words will continue.

In October, 2016 D.N.Prahlad was nominated to the Board of Infosys. He had earlier resigned as an employee of Infosys. He is a relative of Narayana Murthy. There is nothing wrong in this arrangement. When questioned on this, Murthy refused to answer. The 'Father of Corporate Governance in India' could have been transparent about the purpose of nominating a relative as a director.

At that time, there were apprehensions about the role of Prahlad. As the Mint reported,

“The worrying thing of this appointment of an executive perceived to be close to the founder is what message it sends to the senior leaders at the company,” said the Infosys executive. “If the board agrees to have a representative of the founder, then leaders clearly are told who is more important. So, can the CEO really have his team rally around him?”

Surprisingly, Seshasayee went out of the way to defend Murthy:

"To be sure, Infosys has categorically denied the existence of twin power centres at the company. “First, there is no such twin power centres. That is completely wrong, and that will be very unfair to the promoters,” R. Seshasayee, non-executive chairman of Infosys, said in an interview last month. “Because, like I mentioned, Murthy has been an exceptional leader who has chosen to stay away and only give advice when sought from. So it will be utterly wrong (to claim otherwise).” The newspaper added, "Murthy did not respond to queries on the appointment."

Seshasayee must now be ruing why he showered an unmerited compliment on Murthy.

It is interesting to note that Nandan Nilekani was all praise for Prahlad in his first press conference on becoming chairman of the company. He knows how to keep Murthy in good humour.