Dear Arun,<div>I was there in the middle of all these drama&nbsp;happened at&nbsp;Cochin...</div><div>I was just standing in front of MES Engg college stall when Anivar and his friends started protest...</div><div>One thing which I want to point here is that, Novell banner was there in the main venue right from the first day...</div>
<div>No one including you and Anivar were raising even a single word against it...</div><div>Anivar also participated in one session as speaker...</div><div>At the end, just before the end of this Cochin conference, you started protest which seems like a well prepared drama to me... and I am still doubtful about the motivation...</div>
<div>Do you think that we all will believe that all of those who created a scene at the end in the name of Novell protest were blind till the last hour of the conference...????</div><div>Just because you are not the organizer, you are never supposed to create some ugly scenes there...<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 10:20 PM, Arun M <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:arun@gnu.org.in">arun@gnu.org.in</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Dear Rakesh,<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br>
&gt; Why didnt you have the same feeling when you initiated the bloody drama in<br>
&gt; the name of Novell protest at Cochin conference...?????<br><br></span>

</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">What did I do at CUSAT ?</span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I explained a little bit above...</div><div>But apart from all that, we all are expecting some kind of maturity from the FSF board members who are supposed to lead the entire free software movement in India...</div>
<div>But you clearly showed that you are not matured enough even to lead a movement in a primary school...</div><div>I saw you were initiating all these unnecessary scenes...</div><div>You were compelling MES students to boycott the conference...</div>
<div>Just a question -&nbsp;Do you think that this was organized to destroy the free software movement in India...???</div><div>Do you believe that the conference was the result of some conspiracy to weaken the free software movement...????</div>
<div>You tried to chanalise the complete attention to the mistake that happened from the organizers which would have been discussed and corrected internally...(I am not saying that that was not a mistake or that was a silly mistake...)</div>
<div>This can happen in any movement at initial stages of its growth that the new volunteers those who are not really strong in ideology commit some mistakes...</div><div>&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">
&gt; A hand full of students and teachers were working hard day and night to make<br>
&gt; the Cochin event a great success... No one like you were there to help<br>
&gt; them...<br><br></span>

</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I would like to appreciate all of them for their efforts. In fact many<br>
of the organisers<br>
of CUSAT event participated in conference held in Trivandrum. They were part of<br>
the organising committee of FSFS conference right from the beginning.<br></span>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br><br>
&gt; And at the end of the day, you tried your level best to demoralize them....<br><br></span>


</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I am sorry if I tried to demoralize them. But i dont understand how I did that.<br><br>
As a free software activists I respect freedom of speech. While myself<br>
or organisations<br>
I belong are not involved in any campaign against novell, I respect<br>
the freedom of<br>
others to campaign against Novell or even free software. When your<br>
freedom of speech<br>
is chained what is the point in having free software ?<br><br>
I did protest against manhandling of Anivar and other free software<br>
activists MES college.<br>
I still keep that position.<br><br>
Protest like one that happened in Kochin happened in FSFS also. At<br>
least some of us<br>
raised voice against those who spoke against the interest of our<br>
movement. But none<br>
of us manhandled any one. &nbsp;I was happy that Sunil pointed out the<br>
mistake. I would<br>
have been more happy if he had protested more strongly (Sunil said he<br>
did protest and<br>
there were no one to support) at the venue and informed the audience<br>
about the mistake.<br><br>
Now, please tell me, what did I do wrong at CUSAT ? Do you think I<br>
should have kept silent ?<br>
Do you know that I&#39;ve been locked in a room with people shouting at me<br>
and Mr Amarnath Raja<br>
(IEEE/InApp) saying that we wont be allowed to go out ? Is this the<br>
civilized manner in which<br>
a protest should be dealt with ? Why did our friends and fellow<br>
organisers did not come to resolve<br>
the issue, until we started the protest(against manhandling) ? What<br>
actions were taken against<br>
those who harassed students from MES who just took photographs of what<br>
happened ?<br><br>
We did not protest against use of proprietary software in the<br>
conference(we should have).<br>
In e-governance session one speaker, after doing some google research,<br>
&nbsp;was telling the<br>
audience who difficult it is to use GNU/Linux. I doubt if he used<br>
GNU/Linux ever in his life.<br></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I was also there when all these happened...</div><div>Freedom of one should not be to deny the freedom of others...</div><div>Forcefully sticking banners over the banners of others(those who participated in the exhibition) is not the right freedom...</div>
<div>He could have stick the boycott banners at the empty spaces...</div><div>And again, there were mistakes from the volunteers also, no doubt... But it was not in single direction... Anivar is also supposed to have some kind of maturity than the volunteers those who are newbies to this movement...</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br></span></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">
And at the end, one of the key organiser started campaigning against<br>
me and FSF India for<br>
all that happened in CUSAT. Why me and FSF India, there were several<br>
others who protested<br>
that day, I was just one among them, Ranjith(Lecturar, Barton Hill<br>
Engg College),<br>
Anil kumar K S( Head E-Gov, Kerala State IT Mission), Pramod, Vimal<br>
(SPACE), Anoop (ZYXWare),<br>
and many others.</span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The answer is again, Arun is not one among thousands to this movement...</div><div>If you feel so, I have nothing to say...</div><div>&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><br><br>
I am willing to correct if you can point out my mistake.<br></span></blockquote><div>&nbsp;</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"></span>

<br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);">
Why FSF India and I became the target ? Time will tell more...</span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I am not against FSF India or Arun&nbsp;personally...</div><div>I am just pointing out some mistakes which the free software community do not want to happen in future...</div>
<div>I&nbsp;personally&nbsp;respect FSF India and the work they are doing to spread free software movement all over India...</div><div>But at the same time&nbsp;I believe that FSF India is also not too high to be criticised...</div><div>
Please take the criticisms in a constructive manner and in the right sense for the best interests of the movement...</div><div>I am also part of the movement and I believe that only constructive criticism can correct the problems inside and keep it really moving...</div>
<div>Hope Arun is getting it in the right sense...</div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 102, 0);"></span><br>

<br>
warmly<br>
<font color="#888888">arun.<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>Rakesh<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Rakesh<br>
</div>