The Week India – August 04, 2019

44 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

CONTROVERSY

RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT

ON JULY 19, 2018, Union Minister

of State Jitendra Singh was set to

introduce the bill to amend the Right

to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, in

the Rajya Sabha. The amendment

would have allowed the Centre to

fix the tenure and salaries of Central

and state information commission-

ers, thereby changing their status

that was at par with that of Supreme

Court judges and election com-

missioners. But RTI activists took

to the streets, saying the proposed

amendments were an assault on

the transparency law. Opposition

parties, too, voiced their protest. And,

the government blinked, not wanting

to make it a poll plank in the last year

of its term.

This July 19, Singh introduced the

same bill in the Lok Sabha, despite

protests from the opposition. This

was no coincidence, but the Modi

government’s way of showing that

with the massive mandate it got in

the recent polls, it could bring in

legislations it deemed fit. “The earlier

act, brought in haste, was clumsy,”

said Singh. “We are making changes

and strengthening transparency.”

On July 22, the bill was passed in

the Lok Sabha. If the Rajya Sabha,

too, gives a go-ahead, the RTI Act will

be amended for the first time. But it

will not be easy as the opposition will

push it to be referred to the standing

committee, which is, ironically, yet to

be constituted.

The 14-year-old RTI movement,

which gave people power to question

the authorities, had begun to show

signs of slowdown as the authorities

were stonewalling information. Even

the mandatory proactive disclosure

of information on government web-

sites, which could reduce RTI appli-

cations by over 60 per cent, was not

being done. More than 80 activists

had been killed in the past few years.

Even the United Progressive Alliance

government, which first brought in

the act, tried to amend it, but backed

off owing to protests.

“There are several problem areas,”

said activist Nikhil Dey, “but the

government’s move to bring these

amendments show that even this

RTI Act was enough to scare them.”

Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener of the

National Campaign for People’s Right

to Information, said the government

wants to create caged parrots in the

Central Information Commission

(CIC). “The government does not

want to give information as people

are asking questions on demone-

tisation and jobs,” said Bhardwaj,

founding member of Satark Nagrik

Sangathan, adding it had stone-

walled information in the Rafale deal

and about the prime minister’s for-

eign tours and educational degrees.

The opposition sought to know

why the bill was not put up for public

discussion before its introduction in

the Lok Sabha. UPA chairperson So-

nia Gandhi, whose National Advisory

Council was instrumental in steering

the 2005 bill, said that the Central

government saw the RTI Act as a

“nuisance” and wanted to destroy the

status and independence of the CIC.

As per the amended act, the ten-

ure, salary and conditions of service

of all information commissioners

will be “prescribed by the Cen-

tral government”. Activists alleged

that this allows the government to

appoint and remove commissioners

at will. The amendments pertain to

section 13, which fixed the tenure of

the chief information commissioner

and information commissioners at

five years or till they attained the age

An amended RTI Act will allow government

to appoint and remove information

commissioners at will, allege activists

BY PRATUL SHARMA

Diminishing

transparency

NO TO A DILUTED ACT

A protest against the RTI Act

amendment at the Constitution

Club in New Delhi