[Fsf-friends] Fwd: [fosscom] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto

[haynes davis]

http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/10/stories/2009041055960900.htm

 The BJP’s awkward embrace of Free Software

Deepa Kurup

The party’s discovery of the virtues of OS would appear to sit
uncomfortably with its slogan “Let a hundred Bangalores bloom.”

The IT manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party has created ripples
among software circles with its support for Free and Open Source
Software (FOSS), and its opposition to “digital standards.” While the
Kerala government has a policy that makes the use of FOSS in
government and education mandatory, Tamil Nadu has implemented it in a
few departments. Left parties have for long backed the Free Software
movement politically. It is surprising that the BJP, with its strong
pro-corporate and pro-patent leanings, should back this cause.

Even as the Free Software community is celebrating this latest
endorsement, sceptics among its ranks are cautious about taking the
BJP’s promises at face value. Its track record, when in power at the
Centre and in the States, provides grounds for these misgivings.

Consider this. As late as January 2009, the BJP government in Gujarat,
led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, inked a deal with the global
proprietary software giant Microsoft that includes a
Microsoft-developed IT curriculum for high school students, teacher
training, certification programmes, and offers free Microsoft software
development tools to universities.

Less than two months on, the party manifesto in its “eEducation”
section declares: “We will actively promote Free and Open Source
Software, including operating systems, which will introduce the habit
of innovation (‘tinkering’) among students.” In fact, in 2006 the BJP
government in Rajasthan signed a similar deal with Microsoft under
Project Shiksha, and in 2004, the BJP-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka,
tied up with proprietary giant for education and e-governance
initiatives.

Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum feels the manifesto
reflects the “blinkered vision” of the BJP, which has “never taken an
anti-monopoly stance.” Dr. Purkayastha points out how Free Software
circles are abuzz with an interesting anomaly in L.K. Advani’s speech
at the manifesto launch: “Mr. Advani referred to how impressed he was
on his visit to the Microsoft Office in the U.S. He did not see the
stark contradiction, as he proudly reflected on the number of Indians
present there!”

FOSS activists, however, hope this means increased visibility for
their cause, considering a large number of National E-governance
Missions are in the pipeline, for which Rs. 6000 crore has been
earmarked in the 11th Five Year Plan. The 40-page document also
promises to set up an “IT standards-setting body,” carving it out of
the Bureau of Indian Standards, and promises all government software
will conform to these “open standards.”

Venkitesh Hariharan, a senior Red Hat official, says: “It is
significant because so far there hasn’t been any conscious effort
towards policy making. Public data and websites have been in both
proprietary and open format.”
Digital standards

As for their new stance on “digital standards” — that is, proprietary
claims on algorithms and software programmes — the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance government, notably, was the first to amend the
Patent Act in March 1999 and in June 2002 as part of the WTO agreement
under Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The
seemingly innocuous phrase “software per se,” which the NDA government
introduced into section 3(K) of the Indian Patents Act, was a loophole
through which software could be brought under a patenting regime from
a copyright one.

According to Dr. Purkayastha, the amendments had nothing to do with
TRIPS which does not even include software or computer programmes in
its ambit. “A 2004 ordinance provided for patenting of computer
programmes used in combination with hardware. Later, while in the
opposition the BJP opposed the bill — even though it was virtually
drafted by their Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley. It was presented
without any changes,” he says. This was revoked in 2005 by the United
Progressive Alliance under pressure from the Left.

Corporates such as IT majors Infosys and TCS have long lobbied for
patents. When contacted, a senior spokesperson from Microsoft, a
company that will be hit hardest by an OS regime, told The Hindu that
the company is “encouraged by the focus on IT by political parties,”
describing the policy of the Government of India as one of “technology
neutrality.”

The BJP’s discovery of the virtues of OS would appear to sit
uncomfortably with its slogan “Let a hundred Bangalores bloom.”