Dear Sir, I had been monitoring the changeover plans of sancharnet email services to bsnl.in ever since it was announced publicly by your MD. From this request, it appears that your department is not fully aware of the implications for national security that such a migration poses. I had an initial debate when I had announced on the FSF-Friends mailing lists that bsnl.in mail server is on Microsoft platform with some learned professors arguing that my methodology to arrive at the conclusion were not technically correct. It was then I got a copy of your presentation, which clarified the issues to members in the Free Software Foundation's mailing list.
I hope you would appreciate that the President of India had earlier said that "Its unfortunate that we Indians believe in proprietary solutions. A small shift in business solutions to proprietary can have devastating effects on our society.." A large number of newspapers had carried the story. One such article is here http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=4779...
If you watch carefully, the article continues "..He said that during a discussion with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a few months ago, he had discussed the issue of software security and the need to look for open source codes. 'Our discussions became difficult since our views were different,' Kalam said. ..".
This is precisely our sore point - that a public sector undertaking has been given a different view about "security" by Microsoft and that you are (innocently, I should now say) executing the project, which goes against "national security" - going by President's own words. A service is never secure, unless the freedom to *examine* or *amend* the code is with us (in this case, with BSNL). You would also appreciate that as per IT Act 2000, there cannot be public systems that have malignant code inside - which means every public system will qualify only if this certification is there. IT Act says that such systems should not cause leakage of sensitive information relating to "privileges of parliament, trade, or other sensitive information" - which can only be ensured if public systems are *only* on Free Software. By taking what is legally now considered as a retrograde step, BSNL is now qualifying to be prosecuted under the aforementioned act.
Its my sincere hope that you would do your best to redo the damage that will be caused to the nation by (1) taking its premier email services away from Microsoft and have it commissioned on Free Software platforms, (2) initiating an audit in every operational department under your control to ensure that proprietary solutions are phased out, and (3) thus, showing the world that BSNL cares for the concerns of the citizens.
Should you have any difficulty in technical aspects, we have a great bunch of techies here who would be at your call to render service which are ethical and just.
Regards and best wishes, CK Raju On 3/9/07, G Srinivas gsrinivas@bsnl.co.in wrote:
Dear Raju,
Can u please throw more light on your statement.
Regards,
G. SRINIVAS
DGM(Dotsoft&Comp)
HYDERABAD, BSNL
040 -23236153(O)
*From:* anilankv@gmail.com [mailto:anilankv@gmail.com] *On Behalf Of *Anilkumar K V *Sent:* 06 March 2007 17:49 *To:* gsrinivas@bsnl.co.in *Subject:* BSNL should find a place in "Hall of Shame"
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *CK Raju, Thrissur* ck.thrissur@gmail.com
Friends,
The mail server at http://mail.bsnl.in has now been confirmed to be on M$ platform. Here's the link.
http://egovstandards.gov.in/states_repositories/andhra-pradesh/brainstroming...
BSNL should find a prominent place now in our "Hall of Shame".
And the person associate with this *project* is G Srinivas ITS, DGM(Dotsoft & Computers), BSNL AP Email : gsrinivas@bsnl.co.in
What a terrible shame ???
CK Raju