Did you jump the gun, Mr Narayana Murthy?

“I am very impressed with the new chief minister. He is making the right moves and he is well intentioned. I have no doubt that he and his team will make Bangalore a better city and Karnataka, a better state,”

Yes, none other than Mr Narayana Murthy has uttered those words of praise. The man who has contributed significantly in making a brand out of 'Bangalore', one who has taught thousands that dreams can turn into reality, the simple guy with his head firmly on shoulders despite his phenomenal success, has declared that the new Chief Minister is well on his way to making Bangalore a better city!

So, could there be no substance at all when a leader of his stature makes so positive a statement? Perhaps, there is substance in it. He must be seeing things from a different angle from what an ordinary blog like Clearway sees. And that possibly is the reason why I'm not convinced if the new government really deserves the dose of optimism that comprises his comment! For someone like me, there needs to be concrete evidence right in front of my eyes that things have taken a turn for the better. That, probably, is the reason why I'm not yet where he is!

Still, what has actually been done to evoke such an upbeat response from the Infosys guy? Is it Kumaraswamy's promise to turn Bangalore around in 3 months when the Siemens Chief decided to put his expansion plans on the back burner? Or, is it the way Kumaraswamy and his better half enjoyed a ride in the Metro Rails of New Delhi and asserted that Metro was precisely what the Doctor ordered? Or, is it, to quote Narayana Murthy himself, that he was "grateful to the government for approving the Infosys proposal to acquire land at Sarjapur. We will soon buy land through KIADB, at market rates. We are looking at around 845 acres” that made Mr Murthy an exalted person?

Well, I'm confused. But Clearway is pretty sure it's the last of the three reasons - for the simple reason, that the two quotes were from the same man, spoken at the same occassion. And Mr Murthy was the victim when a peasant called Deve Gowda made him quit his post over the land issue. Is it not only natural that Murthy feels pacified with the goodwill gestures by the new Government?

Rightly so. Murthy has every reason to be jubilant. But, to attribute the gesture to a "reformed face" of a government that has let the roads overflow with vehicles and fill with smoke before mulling over an alternative form of public transport, with the Chief Minister still in his Probation period, might just be a bit too much to digest! Of course, as has already been stated (almost akin to a disclaimer), Mr Murthy might be seeing things from a different perspective from Clearway's and hence might be viewing a different picture - but Clearway is NOT Infosys and it adamantly has an opinion that is different from that of the IT giant's mentor!