In a letter released on Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has questioned opposition leader VS Achuthanandan about the latter hosting his website on the asp.net domain owned by Microsoft.
In the letter, the CM reminded Achuthanandan that he had once campaigned for free software, and had criticised Chandy for not promoting free software.
In 2006, Richard M. Stallman, a software freedom activist, had visited Kerala to campaign against the monopolisation of knowledge in the IT sector.
Achuthanandan, who was then the Chief Minister, had promised that the LDF government would take the lead in popularising free software.
Pointing to this promise, Chandy asked Achuthanandan why he developed a website on the Microsoft domain instead of going in for a free software option.
“You have always termed Microsoft a monopoly, now your server is Microsoft Windows-based and hosted on a data centre in Singapore. The domain is also registered in another monopoly company GoDaddy,” the CM says in his letter.
Chandy continues: “There are two websites in my name, and both are hosted on Linux open source servers. The government website is located on a government data centre, and my personal website is also hosted in India. There are many websites like this based on free software. I wish you had also used the free software options that you have been publicising.”
The CM said that Achuthanandan should, at least, have abandoned Microsoft.
Heavily coming down on him Chandy said, “Words and actions should match, otherwise people will say ‘ham sab chor hein’.”