Economic Times: New
Delhi: Wednesday, March 12, 2014.
Although the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government cites the Right to
Information Act (RTI) as one of its key achievements, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has made good use of it by obtaining data on controversial issues
to embarrass the administration. In last four years, the RTI cell of the BJP,
probably the only recognised political party to have such a unit, has filed
more than 2,000 applications under the transparency law on various issues, said
national convenor Vivek Garg. "The cell would continue to function even if
the BJP comes to power (after the election)," he said.
Information
that the BJP uncovered has contributed to the discrediting of the UPA.
"The law has certainly benefitted opposition parties like BJP in mounting
pressure by exposing corruption in government but it would be difficult to say
whether it was the Congress or the BJP which got maximum political
mileage," said Zoya Hasan, a political analyst and professor at the Centre
for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In September
2011, Garg's team got its hands on a file with a noting on spectrum allocation
that seemed to put finance minister P Chidambaran in the line of fire. Based on
other documents, Garg filed a petition that accused former Delhi chief minister
Sheila Dikshit, former head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
Suresh Kalmadi and others of wrongdoing in the preparations for the 2010 event.
Congress
spokesman Raj Babbar said opposition parties may have used RTI
"cleverly" to show the UPA in bad light but it should be given credit
for a law that aims to curb corruption by empowering the common man. "I
think we failed to use RTI to gain public support. Nonetheless, we would
definitely think of having an RTI cell after the elections," he said.
An advocate
by profession, Garg said the idea of setting up an RTI cell to train party
workers in using the law to expose corruption came from Delhi BJP leader Harsh
Vardhan in 2008. "Seeing the success of our work in Delhi, the top brass
decided to form a national RTI cell in 2009," he added. The cell, which
has eight lawyers, has conducted workshops for party workers on using the
transparency law to obtain crucial documents.
The BJP
hasRTI cells in at least five other states--Maharashtra, Haryana, Mizoram,
Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. "We were able to obtain several important
documents on issues such as the Adarsh scam, the builder-politician nexus in
Mumbai and others," said Yashwant Shinde, convenor of BJP's RTI cell in
Maharashtra.
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