CM ducks questions on Sprinklr deal

Government has stated all the facts on the issue: Pinarayi

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday appeared unenthusiastic to grapple with the Opposition on the ethical disputes underlying the government's controversial deal with U.S.-based data analytics firm Sprinklr.

Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala had openly challenged Mr. Vijayan to tell the public why the government had ‘recanted’ the State’s ‘surreptitious arrangement’ with Sprinklr in its affidavit filed in the High Court. Mr. Vijayan seemed reluctant to take up the gauntlet and merely stated that the government had declared the facts. He refused to entertain any more posers on the subject from journalists.

Mr. Chennithala said the government had admitted in the High Court that it had erred in giving Sprinklr overlordship of the personal health information of lakhs of Keralites. Health workers had harvested the details by making door-to-door visits during the pandemic. They had unsuspectingly uploaded the data on cloud servers controlled by Sprinklr by using an app provided by the firm at the instance of the government.

Mr. Chennithala said he suspected that CPI(M) hoped to secretly access the data in the illegal possession of Sprinklr to influence voters and frame its strategy in the upcoming local body and Assembly elections.

He said Mr. Vijayan had used the public health crisis as a cover to authorise the deal with Sprinklr.

He had assumed dictatorial authority and bypassed the Cabinet, the CPI(M) State secretariat, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to push the deal with no record in the Secretariat to show such an arrangement existed.

Mr. Chennithala also attempted to drive a wedge in the ruling front by claiming that he had the ‘silent backing’ of the State secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Kanam Rajendran in his bid to protect the health information of Keralites from being raided by a shady foreign firm.

Mr. Vijayan had justified the deal by stating that ‘extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures.’ It was a hollow excuse and an admission of guilt.

Mr. Chennithala said that like all authoritarians, Mr Vijayan attempted to portray any attempt to hold him to account for his actions as a conspiracy to undermine the State’s pandemic containment efforts. Prime Minister Modi was no different, he added. Mr. Chennithala reiterated his demand for a CBI inquiry.