Former Infosys chairman R Seshasayee on Friday issued a statement asking Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy to stop personal attacks against him. He also asked Murthy to not make false and slanderous accusations against him over the alleged governance failures at the IT firm during his term.
“Mr. Murthy 's statement to the investors misleadingly attributes words to me that are taken completely out of context, making it appear that I was not stating the truth. I wish to categorically state that I have always been candid and truthful in all my statements concerning Infosys,” Seshasayee said in a statement.
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He independently confirmed that the statement was issued jointly by Jeffrey Lehman and John Etchemendy, the two independent board members who quit Infosys, soon after co-founder Nandan Nilekani took over charge of the company.
Earlier this week, Murthy issued a statement saying that he had voiced concern against failing governance at Infosys and hoped that Nilekani would set right the lapses.
Seshasayee, who remained silent after his resignation, reiterated that Murthy had invited him to be the chairman of Infosys and as recently as February this year, the founder had called him “ a man of high integrity”.
“I am therefore at a loss to understand the motivations for this persistent vendetta against me," he wrote. “ To quote an anonymous whistleblower letter that alleged many things, which have subsequently been proved baseless and false through multiple investigations by highly respected counsel, in order to give an impression to the audience that I lied to the shareholders, is patently offensive.”
“The words that Mr. Murthy attributes to Jeff Lehman and Roopa Kudva, from their private conversation with him are also egregiously taken out of context. It is regrettable that Mr. Murthy 's campaign on the alleged governance lapses has continually slipped into personal attacks and slander on individual Board members,” he wrote.
Lehman and Etchemendy, the independent directors who left Infosys with Seshasayee, defended the former chairman’s actions during the time he headed the Infosys board.
"Sesh is a man of impeccable integrity. Faced with unfair, false, and outrageous attacks , he has consistently responded with scrupulous honesty and forthrightness. He has been an inspiration to his fellow board members and has been the real moral compass of Infosys for the past three years,” Lehman said. “. I am fully conversant with the details of the Rajiv Bansal issue and I can categorically state that at no point did Sesh say anything in public or, to the best of my knowledge, in private that was untrue or did not reflect the collective view of the Board.”
Rajiv Bansal is the former CFO of Infosys, who got a severance package that is alleged to have been given to buy his silence in the $200 million acquisition of Panaya, the Israeli technology firm. Since then, Murthy has accused Infosys of failed corporate governance, which led to former Chief executive Vishal Sikka’s exit and a public fallout with Murthy that led to investors lose confidence in Infosys.Jeffrey Lehman, former of Director of Infosys who also resigned recently from the Board said as follows: "I had the privilege of serving on the Infosys Board for more than eleven years, under several different chairs.
“During his tenure, Mr. Seshasayee was scrupulously and tirelessly devoted to ensuring that the Board comply with all applicable principles of law and governance. An anonymous, so-called “whistleblower” made outrageous charges against management; the Board engaged several sets of outside counsel and investigators of impeccable reputation, and those investigators determined that every charge was false and without any foundation,” wrote Jeffrey Lehman, a former director who was on the Infosys board for 11 years, including when Murthy and Nilekani were on the Chair.
“ For the good of Infosys, I wish Mr. Murthy would stop quoting those lies as if they were reputable. For the good of Infosys, I wish Mr. Murthy would stop defaming Mr. Seshasayee and the other members of a Board who have served with dedication and integrity, who have turned the other cheek when slandered, and who have acted only in the best interests of the company,” Lehman wrote.