On the successfull smear campaign against Richard M Stallman and what it means for free(libre) software

Richard M Stallman(RMS), the man who started the free software movement, founder of GNU project and the man to whom the software technology industry owes a lot has been successfully ousted from MIT and from the FSF the organisation which he founded and headed till now by nothing based on twisted facts and hyped up media houses and the social media mob which feeds on anything sensational. There was also his critics and those people who hate him for his idealistic stand successfully fueled the campaign and the mob instantly scrambled to dig up materials from the past that could be used to justify the witch hunt against RMS.

RMS was pressured to give up his position at MIT and resign from FSF. FSF anounced his retirement on September 16, 2019. This is shocking as to how a man’s whole life work could be rubbished in an instant based on nothing more than twisted facts. This mob which came for RMS could come for anyone else tomorrow and no one is allowed to have a different opinion against the mob. I could be attacked as well just for supporting him and I don’t care about it, it is my opinion. What is more than shocking was , there were very few to defend his position, which I did not expect save a few and no more shocking was how the software freedom conservancy instantly turned it back towards him.

It was never their movement as stated in their blogpost, it was his movement and a movement of common people like me and countless other’s who spend their time voluntarily expecting nothing but the advancement of free software . In the past they came and hijacked his free software movement with open source movement and diluted the poilitical stand of the movement to be friendly to the corporations who want to control the masses through their software and now they do this. They want the free software movement buried, along with all the vested interests that wanted him go.

There is no one who could replace him, after all he is the pole star of this movement and one who people would look up to, as he never changed his principles even a bit after all these decades. Now, he is gone there is no one who could replace him after all he was insanely determined and stood his ground no matter what. This world is sane because of few insane people like him.

I sincerly hope the free software movement lives on and reaches its final goal. And we the people need to make sure of that.

Big day for the citizens of India today

Supreme courtof India the highest court of the country has tasked a nine judge bench to decide whether the fundamental right to privacy is guaranteed under the constitution of India.

This is a key case as the central government of India is forcing on its citizens a surveillance scheme known as Aadhaar under various dubious benefits by using the cloak of Aadhaar act, the constitutional validity of which is still debatable. Government has chosen to push Aadhaar full swing and had made it mandatory for various government schemes even as the supreme court had made clear that nobody can be denied benefits just because they do not have Aaadhar that is until the court decides one way or other. But in a blatant disregard for the supreme court’s earlier judgement govt choose to make it mandatory by using corporate media houses to push its agenda.

Earlier the Attorney general of India Mukhul Rohatgi representing centre in a related Aadhaar case has argued before the same court that no citizen has fundamental right to privacy. what is even more appalling is that no citizen has right to sue the govt for its miuse of Aadhaar and the country has no privacy and data security laws. The supreme court has finally decided to hear on the Aadhaar case after long delay of nearly 2 years when it gave it’s initial judgement. Today’s case will closely watched as the fundamental right to privacy of every citizen is at stake.

I sincerely hope this case gets the coverage it deserves as the country’s press and media has taken over by the people in power to brainwash the people by repeated push of its propaganda and using its various constitutional arms to silence any dissent. India has never seen such a totalitarian government since the constitution’s formation after its independence and the country’s people are kept divided using clever religious divide and rule politics and swaying the emotions of the young and vulnerable in its favour using its dedicated IT wing which cleverly plants fake news at the right time doing its damage before truth could surface.

People of India has to unite and reject any propaganda claims, think rationally, question everything, use common sense and not let emotion take over. As the world’s biggest democracy needs its people to be informed to have a functioning democracy where the fundamental right to privacy and security is a core value.