Bangalore: Giving a major boost to the open source movement in India, the country's right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its support for free software and open source programmes in its IT vision document.

Announcing the vision document, the party said that if voted to power it will support the use of software based on open—or free—sources in all government-related deployments, reports IANS.

The announcement has ben welcomed by the country's small but active Free Open Source Software (FOSS) campaigners.

"The Left, specially the Communist Party of India-Marxists, have also been supportive in taking stand against software patents in India, and are in favour of open standards,"  Red Hat India Open Source head Venkatesh Hariharan said.

"Of the major parties, only the Congress is left to take a stand," he stated. 

"As a long time supporter of free and open source software, I am delighted to see a major Indian political party, the BJP, endorse our stance. However, I am even more delighted to see that this endorsement is rooted in a comprehensive vision for India's development."

At a site called public-software.in, campaigners argue: "FOSS is software which grants right to users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of source code. The open, inclusive and participatory nature of FOSS is a natural fit for the vibrant traditions of Indian democracy and its emphasis on sharing knowledge."