Politics or public life?

On his recent visit to the Infosys campus, Singapore's senior minister Lee Kuan Yew exhorted Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy to enter politics and make a difference, particularly to the economic reform process. Mr Murthy's immediate response was that his intention was never to enter politics and that he believed that managing a company and a nation were different, and he is of course right. This is not the first time that Mr Murthy has been asked to step into the field of national governance. The last time round, when the new President of India was being elected, there were calls from various sections for Mr Murthy to be a candidate.

Corporate leaders in politics are not new. But what creates a definitive interest in this new suggestion is the stature and standing of Mr Murthy. In the past, there have been many businessmen and professionals at the national level who have tried their hand at politics""but a majority of those who joined the political stream have done so through membership of the Rajya Sabha. Over the years, the list of parliamentarians has included Murli Deora, Kamal Morarka, Salim Sherwani, Lalit Suri, Vijay Mallya, and Praful Patel. In recent times, there have also been two from the Jindal business group who entered politics: young generation Congress leader Navin Jindal and his father OP Jindal, a minister in the Haryana government, who died in an accident a few months ago. At the Centre, few have got ministerial office (TA Pai was perhaps the only one). So far, most business leaders who entered politics have not been able to make their mark on a sustained basis. Many of them either could not adapt to the political world or circumstances ensured a short tenure in politics. It is not at all certain that even someone like Mr Murthy, with his global reputation, would be able to make a difference because the party system keeps non-party heavyweights on the margins and rarely allows them to enter executive office.

Lee Kuan Yew is used to an entirely different political system in Singapore, a homogeneous society in which the main political party consciously seeks out successful professionals, and where more than half the seats in the legislature are usually decided without contest. In the Indian context, the qualities required for success in the rough and tumble of politicking, and caste-based voting, are those that people like Mr Murthy will shy away from acquiring. So either Indian politics has to change, or Mr Murthy will have to acquire a different skin. Indeed, Mr Murthy's recent experience as chairman of Bangalore International Airport Ltd would have taught him a lesson or two. It would be more productive for both him and the country, therefore, if he entered public life but not politics, by becoming part of civil society in an appropriate manner and thereby being a public force for desirable change.