BANGALORE: The 33rd annual general meeting of Infosys on Saturday turned out to be a felicitation programme by shareholders and board members for outgoing executive chairman N R Narayana Murthy.
While some shareholders used the opportunity to raise their concerns about the company, most of the others queued up to pour adulation on Murthy, who has retired from the company for the second time. An enthusiastic shareholder sang, “Huttidare Kannada nadalli huttabeku, shares iddare Infosysnalli irabeku (If you are born, you should be born in Karnataka; if you have shares, it should be of Infosys).”
Giving Murthy as special salute, K Sadananda Shetty, another shareholder, called Infosys’ founders the “Brahmas” of the IT sector in India”. “He (Murthy) is the Infosys rakshaka (saviour),” Shetty said. “Whenever Infosys was in crisis, he came to its rescue. He is the ultimate chairman for us and the company.”
The display of adulation extended the meeting by an hour, to the annoyance of some shareholders who had come with lengthy notes on their concerns.
Some members of the audience also argued with board members that they should be given sufficient time to speak as they had patiently heard the board members for over two hours. Even Murthy’s appeals to keep the queries short fell on deaf ears. Outgoing independent director Prof Jeffrey S Lehman chaired the meet.