Govt mulls RTI immunity to all 1,444 parties

Times of India: New Delhi: Monday, September 30, 2013.

In order to shield six national parties from the RTI Act, the government decided to extend the immunity to no less than 1,444 registered political parties as it felt excluding only "recognized" entities would create an anomalous situation.

The benefits to 1,444 parties are set out in a note submitted to the Cabinet under the signature of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as in-charge of the department of personnel and training that piloted the controversial amendment.

Overruling the opinion of the law ministry that the exemption in the Right to Information Act apply to 52 recognized parties, the DoPT said this will lead to an "incongruous situation" by discriminating among political parties.

"The proviso suggested by the department of legal affairs would confine only to the 52 recognized (national/state parties) out of 1,444 political parties registered with the Election Commission as on 18.01.2013. This will bring in an incongruous situation, which could be avoided by adding the explanation covering all the political parties registered with the Election Commission," the Cabinet note said.

The note is now available on the DoPT website in keeping with transparency initiatives adopted by the government and in response to widespread public interest in the issue.

The note's argument that there cannot be an apartheid among political parties will only bolster the case of the amendment's opponents who have said the move is an example of the political class banding together to ward off any scrutiny of their affairs.

The RTI amendment was referred to a standing committee of Parliament following BJP's decision to oppose the move during the monsoon session.

Thereafter, RTI activists have stepped efforts to get the amendments scrapped and the forthcoming round of state polls has increased the heat on Congress and its UPA partners as well.

After Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's ambush of the government over the ordinance to allow convicted legislators to retain their seats, there is an expectation that he might mount pressure for withdrawal of the RTI amendment too.