Indian IT giant Infosys has become the talk of the town. After Vishal Sikka resigned as the CEO and MD of the firm, much has been said about how this was a result of the constant interference from co-founder Narayana Murthy. Sikka too had said that he was tired of "defending against unrelenting, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks."
The board of Infosys then spoke in favour of Sikka and said that he had resigned due to "Mr. Murthy's continuous assault." However, Infosys' former chief financial officer TV Mohandas Pai has now spoken out in favour of Murthy and said that Sikka has been blaming Murthy and his interference as a cover up for his "bad performance."
Also read: Will Narayana Murthy return to Infosys as talks of his role as chairman-emeritus heat up?
When the Press Trust of India asked Pai if Sikka was trying to cover up his bad performance, he said: "Yes, true. He (Sikka) wanted to leave from February by his own admission. He is covering up his own failure to reach the target by blaming Narayana Murthy."
Pai also said that Sikka being appointed as the executive vice-chairman is weird as the company already has a chairman, a co-chairman and an executive chairman. "Yes, the company has a Chair, a Co-Chair, an executive Co-Chair, an acting CEO. A very confusing lineup," he added.
Meanwhile, this isn't the first time that Pai has spoken about how Murthy is an integral part of Infosys. He has time and again said that Murthy should return to the IT giant as chairman emeritus and that the move would improve the brand and also assure its investors regarding the firm's position and working.
"My personal view is Narayana Murthy should come back as Chairman Emeritus," he told PTI in an interview. "As Chairman Emeritus, people can look up to him to give his views...these are (views on) governance, nothing to do with management, strategy and all that. May be Murthy should come back as Chairman Emeritus, where he has no operational responsibility."
Murthy, earlier, had said that he wishes he had stayed on with Infosys and should have listened to his colleagues and other co-founders when they advised him to stay back.
"Generally, I find that I am a very emotional person. A lot of my decisions are based on idealism and probably, I should have listened to them," he told CNBC TV18. "A lot of my founder colleagues told me not to leave Infosys in 2014, to stay a few years."
While he said that he regretted leaving the IT giant, he did clarify that he does not really miss being on the campus on a daily basis.
