How the privilege of common man under RTI is more powerful than of the Parliament members

India Today : Shyamlal Yadav : New Delhi : September 15, 2010 :

Members of Parliament may have been slightly miffed with Sports Minister M.S. Gill when he asked them to file their queries on the Commonwealth Games under the Right to Information Act during the last session.

The minister was strangely in the right since RTI applications have to be answered within 30 days. Here's how some questions fared in the House. The Defence Ministry conducts many inquiries and commissions into the corruption charges against armed forces officers but the ministry has no list of how many officers are being accused, investigated, punished etc. During the budget session this year, MP Shruti Chaudhary and four other MPs had asked Defence Minister A.K.Antony about "the total number of cases of irregularities, corruption, transfer of land and other land scams including the land scam in Ranikhet in the armed forces during the last three years and the current year; the number of senior officers and other personnel found guilty in each of the cases after investigation; the details of the personnel punished and acquitted in each of the cases; and the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to check recurrence of such cases in the armed forces?"

Answering the query, Antony said, "The information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House." It has been almost six months hence but the ministry is yet to furnish the list in the age of internet.

A similar question was put by MP Yogi Aditya Nath on August 2. He also got the same answer, "The information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House."

But if the MPs had filed an application under RTI, as suggested by Minister Gill, it was almost certain that they could have been provided complete information since it is mandatory to provide the same within 30 days of application. After all the questioning during Question Hour and Zero Hour, MPs must have recognised that their privilege is less effective than what common citizens wield with the RTI Act.