Chandy attacks Achutanandan over Microsoft-based website

Thiruvananthapuram: Continuing his attack on V S Achutanandan, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today slammed the Marxist veteran for using a product of Microsoft, which he had earlier dubbed as a “global monopoly giant”, to develop his website ahead of the May 16 assembly polls.

Chandy and Achutanandan are at loggerheads on various issues for the last few days.

The Chief Minister said though he was happy about the Left leader’s “delayed wisdom” of launching the website, Facebook and mobile application, he wished it would have been developed using free software.

Alleging that opposition leader used to criticise him vehemently for not promoting free software, Chandy said it was ironical that he had launched his website using asp.Net, a Microsoft product.

“The server which hosts Achutanandan’s website is that of Microsoft Windows. The server is located at the data center in Singapore. And the domain is registered by GoDaddy, the American company which enjoys monopoly in domain registration,” he said here in a release.

A politician’s words and actions should match, Chandy pointed out and said people wanted to know why he had now turned “Microsoft supporter”.

Achutanandan had earlier claimed that the Left government would do everything to promote and popularise free software.

Chandy also said both the websites in his (Chandy’s) name — the official one and the newly launched personal site — have been created in the open source software Linux.

Chandy had attacked Achutanandan’s entry into social media last week saying the Marxist leader and his party had once termed computer as a devil which would ruin job opportunities of youngsters and he was happy to know that they had embraced social media, finally.

PTI