The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leadership has set in motion a political process for unravelling the mystery alleged over the Information Technology Department’s decision to engage a U.S. company for processing the COVID-19 patients’ data.
Well before the CPI(M) State secretariat meets to discuss the issue on Tuesday, party Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai has put the party stance in perspective by stating that an exigency warrants instant responses and decisions, and the pact in question need not be construed as a dilution of the party’s stated position on crucial issues concerning individual privacy and data sanctity.
The party leadership seems to be conscious of a move to misinterpret the bureaucratic decision to rope in Sprinklr company for processing the patients’ data as a deviation from its declared stance on all issues pertaining to data and the Opposition United Democratic Front’s (UDF) move to use it for scoring brownie points with an eye on the ensuing local body as well as Assembly elections.
Arresting the wanton spread of the COVID-19 virus and executing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s brief to ensure that no life gets sniffed out by any lapse in containment becoming imperative, an officer used his discretionary powers to ink the pact giving the official procedures a go by. The State’s administration is familiar to such decisions too, sources say.
Given the lethal nature of the virus and the lack of experience of the State in managing a crisis of such mammoth proportion, the government was forced to explore all options to restrict the impact of the viral attack. The government’s endeavours not only yielded optimum results, but also won international accolades.
With Mr. Pillai clarifying that slips, if any, could be evaluated and corrected post COVID-19 is seen as a move to put a lid on the row and rob the sheen off the government’s achievements in managing the crisis.
The party leadership may go into a more vigorous campaign against the bid to put the Chief Minister in the dock and run a smear campaign in the days ahead. Law Minister A.K. Balan and Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener A. Vijayaraghavan had warned against such attempts and it had become almost clear that the Sprinklr row would keep on smouldering till the elections were over.