THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the state IT secretary met him to explain the contract with Sprinklr, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran met his CPM counterpart Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Thursday and voiced the party’s displeasure over the deal.
The move came amid the Left Government’s and CPM’s bid to justify the deal with the US firm. CPI, CPM’s ally in the LDF, is reportedly unhappy over two aspects – that the deal violates the declared official policy of Left parties over data privacy and security and that the decision was taken keeping the cabinet in the dark. Kanam, it is learnt, told Kodiyeri that CPI ministers would have protested against the deal if it was discussed in the cabinet.
Sources said CPI has also expressed its reservation over the two-member panel appointed by the state government to look into the deal. Kanam has, however, conveyed that the CPI leadership would not express its dissent over the issue publicly considering the current situation wherein the focus is on fighting the pandemic.
It was on Wednesday evening that IT secretary M Sivasankar met Kanam at M N Smarakam, CPI state headquarters. It is learnt that the out-of-the-way meeting took place on the directive of the chief minister. The meeting reportedly bore no fruit.