Image from Wikimedia

It has been only one week since Microsoft's OOXML was defeated in India, but Microsoft soon proceeded to lying and spinning. It turned out that only Microsoft's close friends (seat-warmers) actually voted "Yes", having already realised that bribery was possible too. Any way you look at it, the OOXML situation in India looked ugly and the mainstream press hardly tells the full story (no surprise there).

Here is the latest very disturbing story. Microsoft is now targeting individuals in India, not just the process, whose outcome Microsoft is unhappy with.

At the meeting held on 20th March 2008, we were informed that Microsoft has complained to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and to the apex office of the country about the constitution of the committee and also cast aspersions on the impartiality of the chairperson of LITD15, Mrs. Neeta Verma. The chairperson was furious and offered to step down from her post. She pointed out that the committee has met numerous times and Microsoft never brought this issue up in front of the committee nor did they check the facts with her or her organization before complaining to the apex office.

Yoon Kit, referring to his recent summary of Microsoft's abuse patterns, likens what we find here to at least two strategies, namely:

# If you don't get your way at a certain level, lobby the superior above. Dont stop! Go all the way to the head of the nation if you think you can!

[...]

# Question Question Question everything (process, fairness, the system, members) when things dont go your way

As a delegate himself, Yoon Kit must be seeing India abused in the very same way that Malaysia is being abused (more on that in the next post). Here is what he wrote about it. He concludes with:

Well done to the Bureau of Indian Standards for standing firm against this raging bully. Hopefully one day the bully will learn how to play fair and contribute positively to the standards process, and not try to manipulate its way in.

Truly despicable behaviour. Shame on you, Microsoft, yet again. How will we ever trust you?

How many more smear campaigns [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] can one find? ⬆