Narayana Murthy showers praise on Sonia Gandhi

MYSORE: Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Tuesday showered praise on UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for her "sacrifice in the face of great temptation, grace and dignity in power and civility in the face of unjust and unfair criticism".

Speaking at the company campus here, where Gandhi inaugurated its second global education centre, Murthy said she is an international politician "who is loved as much by the rural masses of India as the elite."

"There are very few people in the country - for that matter anywhere in the world - who have transcended continents, cultures and languages and felt completely at home in each of them like Sonia has", Murthy said.

"Sonia's heart is always on the side of the poor, the weak and the disenfranchised," Murthy, who is the Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys, said.

"Her strengths are her decency, courtesy, compassion, secularism and tolerance and quest for using excellence in competence to make life better for the poorest of poor in India", Murthy said.

Murthy also said if India is to truly become a superpower, it has to perform with world class excellence. "No slogan will ever change this", he remarked. "Such an objective (to become a superpower) also demands that we become respectable in the eye of the comity of nations".

"It's now an accepted fact internationally that visible signs of progress are extremely important to convey to the outside world (about) our progress towards betterment", he added.