Kerala has not gained anything from Sprinklr deal, court upheld what oppn voiced, says Chennithala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The opposition Congress on Sunday asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to tell what Kerala had gained by sharing its coronavirus data with US firm Sprinklr.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala told the media that Pinarayi and his party is on cloud nine and wrongly claiming that the high Court has given them an all-clear signal in the handing over of the data to US marketing and PR firm.

"Nothing of that sort has happened and instead have accepted all our fears, which included secrecy and privacy of data, taking informed consent of patients, and anonymity of all personal information. The court has clearly said had it been normal circumstances, it would have taken a different position but given the need to take urgent steps to prevent COVID-19 spread, it is not doing so. We want Pinarayi to tell us what Kerala has gained by giving the data to Sprinklr," said Chennithala.

Chennithala said only an interim order had come from the high court. "You just wait and see, the court will look into all the explanations that the Pinarayi government has given; so we will wait for the final verdict."

"Pinarayi was very contemptuous when our senior legislator V D Satheeshan pointed out to a report from a state government agency which had said that 80 per cent of Kerala’s population might get affected by COVID-19. Pinarayi turned very critical of Satheeshan and admonished him. But in court, the Pinarayi government submitted the very same findings," added the Congress leader.

On Friday, after hearing various petitioners in the controversial transfer of COVID-19 patient data by the Kerala government to Sprinklr, the Kerala High Court refused to stay the agreement and gave a number of directions to the state, saying all safeguards regarding data privacy be maintained.

The court posted the case for hearing after three weeks.

Pinarayi later assured that his government’s stand was always that data will be protected.