Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) chairperson and former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Monday resurfaced in the public domain after a long hiatus.
He had spent much of the past eight months convalescing at home after a brief hospitalisation in October last.
Mr. Achuthanandan appeared on Facebook, rebutting former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s statement that the IT@school project was the brainchild of Congress rule.
Correction bid
Mr. Achuthanandan attempted to correct him by claiming that the E.K. Nayanar government had initiated scheme with the help of a committee headed by scientist U.R. Rao.
Moreover, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) had batted for free software. It halted the attempts of the Congress government to open the door for the entry of Microsoft.
Mr Achuthanandan reminded Mr. Chandy that he was at the forefront of the struggle against ceding control to Microsoft. IT@school used free software because he struggled against the United Democratic Front (UDF) policy that favoured profit-oriented software giants.
Denial
Mr. Achuthanandan denied that the LDF had opposed Victer’s channel for remote learning. He said he had inaugurated the channel as Chief Minister in 2006 when M.A. Baby was Education Minister.
Mr. Achuthanandan compared Mr. Chandy to ‘Ettukali Mammoonju’, a character created by writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer who comically claimed a role in occurrences of some consequence.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan pointed out Mr. Achuthanandan’s statement when asked to comment on Mr. Chandy’s claim at his COVID-19 news briefing on Monday.
