Sudha Murty resigns from TTD board, says would be happy to join if new govt invites
Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty quit as member of the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams Trust Board on June 6th. Sudha Murty had been appointed board member twice, first in February 2017 for two months and then in April 2018. She has served on the Trust Board for 14 months.
Ever since her resignation, messages doing the rounds on social media claim that the decision to resign was taken after new Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was mulling to appoint his maternal uncle and former MP YV Subba Reddy as the TTD chairman. The messages claim that Subba Reddy is a Christian and Sudha Murty had quit in protest. Subba Reddy has not yet been appointed as TTD chairman and he has denied that he is a Christian.
How can this be allowed @HMOIndia? Sudha Murthy resigns from Thirupathi board. Jagan appoints his uncle YEHOVA VINCENT Subbareddy( YV SUBBARADDY) -a staunch Evangelist as chairman of TIRUPATI TUMALA BALAJI TEMPLE, richest Hindu shrine
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) June 11, 2019
He works to spread more CHURCHES in Andhra.
When TNM asked Sudha Murty about these messages, she said there was nothing political in her resignation. “We were appointed by previous govt and it is not nice to continue without an invite. My decision was not political, it was just the decent thing to do.”
Sudha Murty added that if the new Chief Minister wished her to be part of the board, she would gladly join. “My resignation has nothing to do with who becomes new TTD chairman. If the new government invites me, I will join,” she told TNM.
Sudha Murty added that her experience at the TTD Board had been ‘nice’ and it was ‘something one looks forward to in life’.
Sudha Murty was first sworn into the TTD Board as a member on February 19, 2017 and was again re-appointed in 2018. She was nominated by Chandrababu Naidu with the aim to bolster the image of the TTD Board after it faced criticism for becoming a rehabilitation centre for the politically unemployed. She was replacing the post previously held by J Sekhar Reddy who was removed as a member of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) by the AP government on December 10 2016, following the seizure of huge cash and gold from his premises in Chennai.
Sudha Murty has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and was previously an engineer with TELCO, which is now known as Tata Motors. She has been the Chairperson of Infosys Foundation for the last 23 years and works heavily in the field of philanthropy.
Sudha Murty has written several books in Kannada and English, which have been translated into all major Indian languages. She is also a recipient of the Padma Shri, awarded by the Indian government.