Sandeep,
May be you have some ill-motivation to put baseless allegations against
CPI(M). However you may please note that CPI(M) and IKM are separate
entity. The fall-out of IKM cannot be ascribed to CPI(M). The concern of
CPI(M) is well known and they expressed it briefly in their political
resolution adopted by its party congress. Its relevant portion is
quoted below
<quote>
Science & Technology
2.75 The development of any country depends in a critical manner on
its scientific and technological capabilities. In India, in the era of
"economic reform", the turning away from the agenda of self–reliance
has meant the downgrading of State support for science and technology.
Public sector research organisations and key research programmes are
being starved of funds and are suffering for lack of personnel. On the
plea of bridging the gap between research and industry, government
research organisations are increasingly being turned into contract
research organisations, thus providing MNCs with cheap knowledge
workers, instead of being allowed to set a forward–looking agenda of
scientific and technological research and innovation for the Indian
industry.
2.76 This trajectory needs to be reversed. Indian industry,
particularly the small and medium scale sector, which provides the bulk
of our employment, cannot survive if technology costs are kept high. We
need indigenous development of technology to bring down the cost of
advanced technology to industry and retain the competitiveness of the
small and medium level enterprises. Indian agriculture also needs
latest inputs from scientific research to improve its productivity.
Therefore, self reliance in science and technology needs to be the
focus for a developing country such as India. Currently, almost all of
the public funds on R&D are concentrated with the central
government and its institutions. There is a need that matching funds be
allocated to state governments and its institutions also.
2.77 Open access to scientific and technological knowledge is
critically important to developing nations. The information technology
sector and the free software movement have shown that new technologies
and methodologies can be developed by cooperative communities without
monopoly ownership – either through copyrights or patents. There is a
need to develop similar ways of promoting "science/knowledge commons",
across many different scientific and technological disciplines, like
biotechnology and drug discovery.
</quote>
You may get it from this url : http://cpim.org/xix%20cong/19%20Congress.Political.Resolution.pdf
I did not get what you mean by untapped vote bank. If you are talking
about free software community, Your assumptions are totally wrong. You
may take a survey on voting pattern of free software activist in
India, which may enable you to get a better picture.
As a democratic organisaton, CPI(M) cannot conduct a secret meeting. It
always used to publish the outcome of its meetings, which are evolved
through a democratic processes, in the relevant forums.
- Keraleean