Joy Paul Puthussery
Dear friends,
The day RTI Act came into existence the (12th October 2005), the politicians and political parties in power at the Centre and the States were trying to sabotage it. They found it an impediment in their plunder of public coffers. Only because of the alertness of the public spirited persons and particularly the RTI activists the Act is still in force without much damage. One cannot deny the fact that the credit for implementing this act goes to the UPA and the National Advisory Council and its members like Aruna Roy.
But subsequently our Prime Minister himself found this act an inconvenience when terrible corrupt deeds were brought to light, thanks to the RTI activists. P.M. had to publically state, “ A situation in which a public authority is flooded with requests for information having no bearing on public interest is something not desirable”. He couldn’t comprehend the fact that public are in a better position to decide what is in its interest. Taking a cue from the PM, the Director General of Standing Conference of Public Sector Enterprises U.D. Choubey said, “ The GDP would have grown by another 2 per cent if there would have been no RTI Act.”
The recent decree of the Central Information Commission that political parties also must be considered as public authority and must be accountable under RTI Act has shocked the political parties, right, left and central and they have united their cry to amend the act to exclude political parties from its purview..
The all party meeting unanimously approved government stand that political parties are not public authorities and so do not come under RTI Act. The cabinet already gave its nod to keep political parties out of the RTI Act by approving changes in the law to overturn the central information panel’s ruling on the issue. The amendment will be presented before parliament today.
The proposed amendment states that the definition of public authority shall not include any political party registered under the Representation of People’s Act and no litigation related to this shall be entertained by any court of law. “Declaring political parties as public authorities under the Right to Information Act would hamper their smooth internal functioning since it will encourage political rivals to file RTI applications with malicious intentions,” stated the government’s note seeking an amendment in the law.
When this rare unity among political parties is seen the inescapable conclusion once can draw is that the harsh glare of openness is scaring them. My appeal to all right thinking persons who would like to see probity and openness in the political scenario must unite and fight for the protection of RTI Act.
Regards,
Joy Paul Puthussery
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