News laundry: New Delhi: Wednesday,
May 04, 2016.
It is very
rare to see Members of Parliament (MPs) from various parties agree on a
specific issue. In the Rajya Sabha, on 28th April, 2016 MPs from various
parties spoke about the ‘misuse’ of Right to Information (RTI) by citizens and
even wondered if the act was passed in haste. One particular MP went to the
extent of asking the government if the RTI act was passed because of the
pressure from the United States.
The tag ‘RTI
Activist’ is being used as a designation
It all started
with the BSP MP, Salim Ansari’s question about a study report by the
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). He asked whether various
government ministries are reluctant and unwilling to share basic information
under the RTI act and sought to know if the government is taking any action to
strengthen the implementation.
The question
was answered after a prolonged discussion involving Salim Ansari and the
Minister in charge Dr. Jitendra Singh. At this point, Congress MP & IPL
Chairman Rajeev Shukla intervened and said that the idea behind enacting the
RTI legislation was to solve problems and grievances of the common man. He then
went onto say that RTI is being misused and a few people are printing ‘RTI
Activist’ on their cards as if it’s a designation. He also said that people are
blackmailed and money is being earned in the pretext of using RTI.
The minister
then said he was glad that the issue is being raised across the lines.
RTI Act
passed under US Pressure?
It was then
the turn of MP from SP, Naresh Agarwal. He asked the minister if the RTI act
was passed in 2005 under pressure from the USA. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh kept
saying that there is no truth to this.
The Chairman of the house then intervened to say that the Parliament has
enacted the law and hence it has to be left at that.
It turned
from bad to worse. Mr. Naresh Agarwal said that PIL & RTI have turned into
the biggest problems in the country. He also asked the government if more and
more government departments are requesting to be exempted from the RTI act and
if they felt that many secrets of the country were getting leaked because of
RTI.
Dr. Jitendra
Singh responded by saying that there must have been a noble intention behind
enacting the legislation and that a constant review is being done. He also
quoted various safeguards in the RTI act.
Naresh
Agarwal also sought to know if our neighbouring countries Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh & Sri Lanka have a similar legislation to which Dr. Jitendra
Singh said that he is only assigned to talk about Government of India and not
other governments.
Praful
Patel’s turn to complain
Praful Patel,
MP from NCP and the former Minister for Civil Aviation went a step ahead and
shared the plight of officials. He said a sense of objectivity is lost because
officials have to now think about what will come out of RTI later. He also
wondered if the act was passed in haste. He said that amendments should be made
to the act to the extent of asking locus standi of those who seek information.
He said with ten rupees, even a chaiwallah or a panwala is asking who made the
missile etc. He also said there must be some restriction.
While there
was no assurance from the minister about considering an amendment, he did say
that there should not be anything done which cuts down or intimidates or causes
unnecessary harassment to any officer or reduces his initiative.
Why are the
MPs wrong?
All the
concerns raised by MPs have no basis whatsoever. Adequate safeguards are
already present in the RTI act for some of the concerns while the others have
just no basis. Let’s address their concerns one by one.
Has the act
been passed because of pressure by the US?
Naresh
Agarwal should have googled about the history of the RTI act to understand that
the legislation was a result of a 20 year struggle and not because of the
pressure by US. By the way, India is not the only country to have this
legislation. By last count, 109 countries across the world have similar
legislations.
What about
Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka?
Again, a
simple google search would have helped Naresh Agarwal get the answer. Pakistan,
Nepal &Bangladesh have an operational legislation similar to RTI while in
Sri Lanka, a RTI bill was tabled in the parliament last month. Pakistan passed
this law in 2002, Nepal in 2007 and Bangladesh in 2008.
Are State
secrets, information on international relations being disclosed?
Praful Patel,
being a minister in the previous regime should have known that the RTI act has
an inbuilt Section 8 that deals with exemptions. The first clause of section 8
clearly states that information which would prejudicially affect the
sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or
economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to
incitement of an offence is exempted from disclosure. All the concerns of
Praful Patel are taken care of in the very first clause of Section 8 of the RTI
act.
But expecting
our MPs to read before making their arguments is probably a little too much.