[PLUG] [ilugd] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto

[Sudhanwa Jogalekar]

Forwarded mail FYI.

There are various reactions from media on the Manifesto. Please check
out those websites too. (will send another mail for those URLs)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Venkatesh Hariharan <venkyh at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 3:49 PM
Subject: [ilugd] BJP accepts key sections of the FOSS Manifesto
To: The Linux-Delhi mailing list <ilugd at lists.linux-delhi.org>


Dear Friends,

Key sections of the FOSS manifesto (Point # 1 on FOSS in education, #
4 on open standards, #5 on encouraging freely shareable, FOSS based
knowledge repositories like Wikipedia in Indian languages), have been
strongly articulated in the BJP's IT vision document that was unveiled
today by BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Shri LK Advani. The 40
page vision document is at:

http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/images/stories/it-vision.pdf

The press release is at:

http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/content/view/799/281/

The FOSS Manifesto is at:

http://www.public-software.in/FOSS-manifesto
(have you signed it yet?)

I am also enclosing my blog on this subject:

Venky
=====

http://osindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/bjps-it-vision-supports-open-source-and.html

Saturday, March 14, 2009
BJP's IT Vision supports open source and open standards

The BJP, the largest opposition  in India has released an IT Vision
document that endorses open source and open standards. Many of the
points mentioned in the FOSS Manifesto for India that we put up online
last week have been incorporated in this document.

This document was unveiled by none other than Shri. LK Advani, the
BJP's candidate for Prime Minister. I did a quick read of the 40 page
document and am impressed with how thorough and comprehensive it is.
As a long time supporter of free and open source software, I am
delighted to see a major Indian political party endorse it. However, I
am even more delighted to see that this endorsement is rooted in a
comprehensive vision for India's development. A big chunk of the
credit for this document should go to Shri. Sudheendra Kulkarni (an
alumnus of IIT Bombay) and Shri Prodyut Bora (an alumnus of IIM
Ahmedabad). Shri Kulkarni was advisor to Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee
when Vajpayee was prime Minister of India and Shri Bora is Head of the
IT Cell of the BJP.

I was happy to see that the Digital Colonization theme that my friend,
Jaijit Bhattacharya of Sun talks about has been incorporated in this
document. Apart from the FOSS Manifesto, some of my key passions on
open standards (that we don't pay for standards like weights and
measures in the physical world, so why should we pay for standards in
the digital world?) have been reflected. Also, as a co-founder of
IndLinux.org which we started in 2000 in an attempt to bridge the
digital divide, I am happy to see that the BJP has promised to create
a National Mission for Indian Language Computing.
The CPI(M), another national party in India has always been a strong
supporter of our stand on open source, open standards and our fight
against software patents. We are hopeful that other political parties
will also take cognizance of the FOSS Manifesto and incorporate the
same into their IT plans for India.

With the country scheduled to go to polls next month, we now have a
broad consensus emerging around the use of open source and open
standards. This is great news for all of us who believe in free and
open source software!

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