Deccan Herald: Hyderabad:
Friday, April 11, 2014.
Political
parties can by no means evade public scrutiny as they are essentially public
bodies and should be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI)
Act says Central Information Commission (CIC) member Madabhushi Sridhar.
Taking
exception to political parties rejecting CIC’s order to come under the purview
of RTI, Sridhar said that “the Congress, BJP, CPI, NCP, CPM and BSP–whom we
have asked to appoint public information officers–have replied in unison that
they need not divulge information to the public as they are not public bodies.
If a political party is not a public body, then is it a private, family-run
organisation? How absurd is this?” he quipped.
He was
addressing a seminar organised by the department of communication of Osmania
University
The
Hyderabad-based journalist-turned-RTI activist mooted amendments to election
law that will make the contesting candidates disclose in their affidavit about
the number of parties they have switched in a decade. “The affidavit for filing
nomination should include this provision and the elected representative, be it
MLA or MP or MLC, should be brought under RTI by terming them as a public
authority,” he said.
Sridhar, who
has authored several publications on RTI Act, questioned the logic behind
restrictions on the Election Commission of India to deregister and derecognise
political parties. “Today, there are 1,147 registered political parties, most
of which do not exist in public domain and contest elections. In fact, some of
these have never contested at least in one election.”
He said most
of them exist only because, as registered political parties, they can avail
income tax exemptions and their public platforms could be exploited for
different purposes other than public service. In view of this, the Election
Commission should be given a free hand to derecognise all defunct political
parties by amending the Representation of People Act 1951, Sridhar asserted.
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