BRITAIN’S chancellor of exchequer Rishi Sunak said his wife was unfairly attacked over her connections with Indian IT major Infosys.
A news channel had last week asked Sunk if he was “giving advice to others you’re not following in your own home”, referring to his wife Akshata Murthy’s reported stake in Infosys which has a presence in Russia.
In a conversation with the BBC on Thursday (31), Sunak drew a parallel between himself and American actor Will Smith whose wife was mocked at the Oscars ceremony over the weekend.
“We both had our wives attacked… At least I didn’t get up and slap anybody, which is good”, he said.
Smith on Sunday (27) slapped comedian Chris Rock for joking about his wife.
“I think it’s totally fine for people to take shots at me. It’s fair game.… (But) it’s very upsetting and, I think, wrong for people to try and come at my wife,” Sunak said.
Infosys, co-founded by Murthy’s father NR Narayana Murthy, clarified that it has a “small team of employees” based out of Russia servicing some of its global clients locally.
The Bangalore-headquartered company denied it has any active business relationships with Russian enterprises.
Sunak said he admires his father-in-law who is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Indian IT revolution.
“With regard to my father-in-law… I have nothing but enormous pride and admiration for everything that he’s achieved.”
“And no amount of attempted smearing is going to make me change that because he’s wonderful and has achieved a huge amount,” the chancellor said.
