2009/3/19 Santhosh സന്തോഷ് VS everlovingyouth@gmail.com:
"the Congress is left as the only major national party which is yet to formally take a position on FOSS." This is the reason for the doubt as the election here is between congress and CPM Clear that it is political. Otherwise which is the proof that congress is not using it any where?
I posted a Modified Version of Vinay's Mail.
We expect Congress will also Support Free Software and Open Standards and all parties will reach at a common position on supporting Free Software
A lot of positive steps are happened during UPA regime
1. Knowledge Commission report endorsing Free Software ( Now they have to take t to Policy) 2. 11th 5 year plan says FOSS is the only way to move forward to increase Computer penetration in india from 1% of population to 5 % percent 3. National Draft Policy on Open standards ( They have to Mandate it now)
Negative : Draft Patent manual that tried to introduce software patents that will have a serious negative impact on small and medium software enterprenures in the country
So it is the time for them to decide on taking credits of these positive moves happened on UPA regime by including the followups on their Manifesto.
A short Note(personal) on CPIM & BJPs Policies (lets talk negatives) we can congress also in this list after their manifesto
BJP's IT Vision Document seems to be from a techno-nationalist perspective. It envision citizen as a member of network society ( obliviously they will miss a lot of citizens who does not have the access ) which is under state surveillance. Access Question is not properly pointed in BJP's policy. it is more about access quality & infrastructure (ie middle class and upper class )
Also it omits Important issues of Privacy of citizen in digital spaces. It is talks about National ID cards (Biomentric? ) Cyber Warfare etc. It Also keeps silence about important issues like patents. But their adoption is very positive . It opens a dialogue space with BJP on Free Software Values. Now they seems to be only concerned about Digital security of the state & not about the citizen . Also there are critiques about practicality of the policy based on cost estimates
CPIM's manifesto is little more progressive for me compared to BJPs IT vision. It focuses extending the idea of Free software to other sectors like agriculture & Drug Discovery. But is silent about Open standards. The strong point against new Public Funded R & D Bill (which allows state patenting of Public Funded Research ) and against US & EU influences in Indian patent Office i also good.
So let hope All Political parties will have a healthy competition on Supporting Free Software. we can reach at a conclusion based on all Manifestos
Anivar