Narayana Murthy rejects Lankan IT advisor offer

Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy has declined the offer of Sri Lanka President to become that country's international IT advisor.

He has written a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying the decision was taken due to "personal reasons."

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During Murthy's recent visit to Lanka, the Sri Lankan government expressed its wish to appoint him as its adviser on IT so as to attract more IT investment.

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Amid reports that he had accepted the offer came an online petitionu00a0which urged him to refuse the offer because Sri Lanka is "perpetrating extraordinary violence on hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians under the guise of fighting armed liberation fighters in the island."

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The petition further urged Murthy to express his "anguish over the situation of the Tamil ethnic minority there" and "serve as a role model for the Indian IT industry."

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