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How much credibility can we place on the political views of Mahesh Murthy?

• Let me start with a disclaimer: I respect you as a Venture Capitalist, and had followed you for your insights on industry. However, some of your posts regarding politics and religion seem contrary to my knowledge, and I therefore request you to clarify on the following positions:   i) Your views on Modi’s involvement in the Gujarat 2002 riots Link: https://www.facebook.com/maheshmurthy/posts/10152345324627138 Your claim as per this post is: And remember, Modi's rise started only after the direct support, shielding and protection of the Hindus who killed over a 1,000 innocent Muslims in Gujarat. I must point out the factual errors in this as follows: As per figures given by the Union Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belongs to the Congress Party, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in the riots, 2548 people were injured and 223 people were missing. This was in a reply to a question asked by a Congress member on the religion wise casualties in Gujarat after Godhra. The report placed the number of riot-affected widows at 919 and the number of children orphaned at 606. You claim in yet another source that the Supreme Court called Modi a ‘modern day Nero’. Now although this is true, this observation was made in 2004. You claim that the Supreme Court has not given Modi a clean chit. But the Special Investigative Team of the SC has found ‘no incriminatory evidence’ against Modi. Yes we do have the Babu Bajrangi tapes in public, but what needs to be taken note of is this- if those tapes were used to get the ones caught on the tape convicted, why could the Court not use the tapes to convict Modi? On April 11, 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL seeking reconstitution of the SIT. If the Court did not believe that Modi was innocent, why would it dismiss a plea questioning the SIT probe?http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sc-junks-pil-seeking-reconstitution-of-sit-probing-gujarat-riots/ ii) Your views on crony capitalism in Gujarat Arvind Kejriwal has made numerous allegations on how land has been snatched from farmers, given at throwaway prices to the Tata, Adani and Reliance industrial houses. You seem to endorse this view. Did you have this view before Kejriwal propounded this theory? If you did, why did you, as a responsible citizen and eminent businessman not take the initiative in pressing charges against Modi? Also, the Supreme Court in a 2011 hearing had observed how the Government of Gujarat’s policy of Land Acquisition is superior to the one followed at that time, and how other states should emulate it. What are your views on that? http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/land-act-a-fraud-learn-from-gujarat-says-sc/827449/0   iii) Your views on Development in Gujarat You have accorded a ‘C’ grade in your assessment of the development in Gujarat. Now, this assessment seems concurrent with views of Arvind Kejriwal, who within 48 hours of his Gujarat tour, could conclude that there has been ‘no progress’ in Gujarat. However, neither Kejriwal, nor you have bothered to delve deeper into this claim, which therefore, many would dismiss as superficial. For eg, when dismissing the growth story of agriculture, opponents argue that if the base year is one which had a drastically low agricultural output (due to famine), or the terminal year was one which had a bumper crop, an aberrant figure of the CAGR would emerge. Now this is a perfectly true reasoning, except that it has not been substantiated by applying Gujarat’s numbers. Could you do that? A lot of voices are being raised on how the Gujarat’s development has not been inclusive. Now what would you make of this link which refutes this claim? http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/gujarats-inclusive-growth/ A recent RBI report has ranked Gujarat low on the HDI parameters. Now that is definitely true. But what it fails to mention is the fact that progress on those parameters in all BJP states in the past 10 years has been consistently and considerably greater in comparison to other states. Can you refute this? iv) Your tweets Some of your recent tweets, I must say (and forgive me for being judgemental here), are highly unbecoming of a person of your stature, whether those were out of action or reaction, and I am including their screenshots   I would like to ask you on what basis do you make such remarks on Narendra Modi’s personal life? You question his ability to ensure safety for women in his administration based on this. Let me then ask you, did Mahatma Gandhi’s and Jawaharlal Nehru’s colourful personal lives have any effect on their public interactions with women or the treatment of women in the freedom struggle? Sorry but I cannot help getting personal here, but you say that Narendra Modi did not handle his responsibilities as a married man and ran away after 14 days. By that logic, since you are separated from your wife, can I be allowed to draw the conclusion that you were not a good husband? It is surprising that while tweeting about women’s issues, while you found time to make all sorts of bizarre remarks about Modi’s personal life, you did not make one passing comment on the statements of Mulayam Singh and Abu Azmi. 2% of Indian population is gay? I do not have an issue with LGBT people, in fact I am supportive of their rights, but you mean to say around 2.4 crore people in India are gay? Where did you get that statistic from? And then you go on to preach how Hindu groups like the RSS propagate ill-treatment based on the ridiculousness of actions of a few delusional (in)humans like Pramod Muthalik. By that logic, how is the claim that all Muslims are terrorists based on the behaviour of the ones who actually are, not wrong? Are you even aware of the social development initiatives of the RSS? Do you know that a member of the party you endorse, Kumar Vishwas, was a RSS member? Which brings to my final point: v) Pinstorm and AAP When asked on the relationship between Pinstorm and AAP, you claim that Pinstorm has worked for both AAP and BJP. Now your followers blindly take whatever you say as gospel truth, but between when was Pinstorm associated with BJP? If it is currently associated, in a rational world, can we expect its founder CEO to make such maligning comments on public forums about it? Won’t that be hypocritical on your part? And if you are no longer associated with BJP, and are only associated with AAP, how are your views going to be unbiased? Especially when you question the independence of media based on Ambani’s equity holdings in the respective media houses? Coming to the Aam Aadmi Party, can you explain the rationale behind its theories on gas pricing? On what basis do you endorse their economic policies, especially the electricity and water discounts which were offered in Delhi? Or the credibility of their candidates, the majority of whom are activists? What do you make of these links? http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/aap-foundermember-quits-calls-party-directionless/article5773695.ece http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/aap-founding-member-madhu-bhaduri-quits-says-party-doesnt-consider-women-as-human-beings/ You claim that the AAP is a party which does not field tainted candidates, so why do 9% of them have serious criminal charges? http://myneta.info/ls2014/index.php?action=summary&subAction=serious_crime&sort=party#summary   Do you believe in Prashant Bhushan, a significant member of the AAP, when he proudly claims how he avoided the erasure of Bhagat Singh’s description in NCERT textbooks as a terrorist? Or Nina Nayak who defended the juvenile rapist of Nirbhaya? Or Medha Patkar when it comes to ideas about social costs of infrastructure projects? Why is Meera Sanyal playing such an insignificant role? P.S: Although the questions are predominantly directed towards Mahesh Murthy, others are more than welcome to share their views on these issues.

• Answer:

  Thanks for the A2A. Like you, I have agreed with Mahesh Murthy on a wide range of issues. His opinion, obviously, carry weight and are capable of influencing people who wish to make their mark as entrepreneurs. Being one of India's largest Venture Capitalists, it makes sense for us to lend weight to his views on business. However, his views on politics do not carry any more weight than your opinion or mine - it is simply his views. Since he has as much experience with politics as you and I do, his views are just as good as ours or maybe even less so (reason below). The reason I feel his views may have less credibility than ours is the 'conflict of interest' angle. AAP's social media campaign is managed by an advertising company called Pinstorm and Mr. Murthy is one of the founders of this company. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-04-06/news/48908610_1_social-media-it-cell-fekuexpress Now, the question arises if Pinstorm took on AAP as a client because they believed in AAP's ideology or they now have to believe in ideology because AAP is their client? Unless Mr. Murthy can clarify this, we will have to take his 'opinions' with a pinch of salt as there is clearly a conflict of interest here.