Clipping a city’s wings

It’s this complete lack of transparency that continues to make a monkey out of reform. The impatience and frustration that the Infosys chief expressed in a keynote address in Mumbai on Thursday is perfectly understandable. Why must men like Narayana Murthy, who have created significant wealth for this country and want only to be allowed to do so unhindered, be forced to waste time “fighting our own government”, as he put it? Take nemma Bengaluru. Here is a city that — according to Karnataka’s IT secretary — attracts one new company with 100 per cent equity every week; a city where infotech giants have taken root, which multinationals find congenial, where some of the country’s most successful PSUs are located. Why must it not be given the air connectivity that it requires, especially when international carriers like Lufthansa have expressed a desire to augment their flights out of the city?

Think also of the forward and backward linkages that a growth magnet like the Karnataka capital can establish.

National Highway 7, which emerges from Bangalore, cuts a swathe through some of the most industrialising regions in this part of the country. Homegrown prosperity of this kind needs a hand up, not a kick down. For starters, therefore, we would urge the civil aviation ministry to at least listen to Narayana Murthy’s complaint.