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CPI-M vetos Sreedharan's participation in Microsoft meet

George Iype in Kochi

Microsoft and Marxists do not mix well.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist has declined an invitation from Microsoft founder Bill Gates to send party ideologue and state planning board member E M Sreedharan for an international conference of important world government leaders.

Sreedharan, son of the communist patriarch, the late E M S Namboothiripad, received an invitation from Microsoft to attend the conference being held at Seatle in the Unites States from April 3 to 5.

But CPI-M sources said the state leadership has refused permission to Sreedharan, as attending the Microsoft conference would be seen as "an ideological compromise" by the party.

"Sreedharan must have been invited by Bill Gates for his brilliant work in the fields of economics and education. But the party cannot permit its ideologue to be giving in to big multinational corporations," a CPI-M leader commented.

When contacted, Sreedharan said he has received an invitation from Microsoft, but is not interested in attending the meeting for various reasons. Sreedharan had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Thrissur against the Congress party veteran K Karunakaran.

Ironically, the CPI-M diktat on Sreedharan's trip to meet Gates will not deter the state government's effort at a possible tie-up with Microsoft in the education sector. The CPIM-led Left Democratic Front government will depute its Education Minister P J Joseph, leader of the Kerala Congress party, a partner in the left coalition, for the conference.

CPI-M leaders said since the conference is all about education, it would be appropriate that Joseph attends the conference instead of Sreedharan.

Among others who will participate in the Microsoft meet are Union Human Resources Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Joseph told rediff.com that the CPI-M leadership is not "deputing" him for the Microsoft roundtable, but he himself has been personally invited by Bill Gates for the conference. "It is a big thing that a Kerala government representative is being invited to participate in an international conference of world leaders," he said.

The minister said he "does not know anything about Sreedharan getting an invitation."

But he said the government has chalked out a proposal for a series of joint ventures with Microsoft for computer education in schools across the state. "I will submit the proposal to Microsoft during the conference. If approved by the software major, it will give a big boost to our computer education initiatives at schools," he said.

Microsoft is now collaborating with the Andhra Pradesh government in providing free computer training for school teachers and students in the state.

The proposal includes setting up a virtual university with the support of Microsfot, networking of all the schools in the state and computer training to all teachers by the year 2002.

The Kerala government will also seek Microsoft's technical support for its ambitious Rural Development Network that has linked the state capital with all the 14 district headquarters and 152 development blocks for enabling villagers to access data, apply for loans and lodge complaints.

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