Narayana Murthy: Prophet of 72-Hour Weeks, High Priest of 34-Million-Dollar “Paperwork Errors”

Farmers break their backs in the fields, rise before dawn, and still scrape by on pennies. Engineers in cubicles grind away, families unseen for days. Yet Narayana Murthy lectures the nation on hard work while his empire was built on deception.

In 2013, Infosys paid the United States $34 million—the largest immigration fine ever—to settle charges of systemic visa fraud. The company misused B-1 business visas to sneak workers into America for jobs that required proper H-1B visas. They coached employees on how to lie to consular officials. They billed clients for offshore work while the labor happened onshore, dodging taxes and undercutting American workers. Infosys called it “paperwork errors.” The prosecutors called it fraud. The money was paid. No one went to jail.

The founder preaches sacrifice from the mountaintop. He demands India’s youth adopt China’s 9-9-6 culture—9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, 72 hours of toil—because that is how nations grow rich. The same man whose company cheated a foreign government to save costs now tells young Indians to surrender their lives to the office. It is the same trick: extract maximum labor for minimum accountability.

His daughter, Akshata Murthy, holds a fortune in Infosys shares. Married to Britain’s former Chancellor Rishi Sunak—the man who set UK tax policy—she claimed non-domiciled status for years. That legal dodge let her avoid British tax on hundreds of millions in overseas dividends. Perfectly lawful, they insist. Just as the visa games were “historical errors.” The rules are for the little people. The elite write new ones in the fine print.

Sunak and his wife speak of duty while shielding wealth behind offshore structures and tax loopholes. Murthy speaks of 72-hour weeks while his family’s billions were swollen by shortcuts abroad and privileges at home.

This is the gospel they sell: work harder, longer, without complaint. Meanwhile the founders, the heirs, the connected—they bend laws, shift money across borders, and pay fines when caught, never the full price. The 9-9-6 sermon is not a call to greatness. It is a distraction. A sleight of hand. Keep the masses exhausted in the machine while the owners pocket the profits and evade the rules they demand everyone else obey.

Hard work built nations, yes. But honest systems built lasting ones. Until the powerful face the same laws they impose, until wealth is earned without gaming the system, the lecture on 72 hours rings hollow. It is not inspiration. It is exploitation wearing the mask of patriotism.

Strip the mask. Demand fairness. Put human lives above corporate balance sheets and family fortunes. Anything less is just another cheat.