Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Friday,
April 29, 2016.
The Congress
and NCP, which were responsible for writing the RTI act, highlighted its
“misuse” on Thursday and asked the government to take remedial measures.
NCP leader
Praful Patel said in the Rajya Sabha that even chaiwallahs or tea-sellers and
paanwadis (paan-seller) want information on the country’s missile system and
such tendencies have to be checked.
“Some panwadi
or chaiwallah can also ask who made a missile programme or anything on
international relations,” he said, asking the government if it was “willing to
consider amending the act”.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, who was present in the House, laughed at Patel’s choice
of metaphors to describe how people with no “locus standi” try to access
crucial details.
Modi often
refers to his humble past and reminds people that he once sold tea at a railway
station in Gujarat.
Patel soon
realised his gaffe and clarified that he did not intend to show disrespect or
taunt the Prime Minister. Like Modi, the BJP lawmakers too laughed off the
comment.
Congress’s
Rajeev Shukla flagged the issue, saying some people have turned the phrase “RTI
activist” into a designation and a profession.
“Are they
(government) aware it is also being misused? People have cards mentioning ‘RTI
activist’. Money is being earned.”
The junior
minister in the prime minister’s office, Jitendra Singh, assured the two
parliamentarians that the government will keep the concerns of the members in
mind.
“...the RTI
may cut down the initiative of an officer ... the government is equally
concerned. We are concerned that nothing must be done which intimidates or
causes unnecessary harassment to any officer,” Singh said.
He was
responding to Patel’s concern that government officials were scared of taking
decisions because of the fear of somebody filing an RTI and raking up a
controversy.
The minister
said the number of applications to the Central Information Commission has gone
up from 200,000 to 600,000 since the BJP-led NDA government came to power in
2014.
Besides
Patel’s faux pas, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had a small verbal duel with
Naresh Agarwal of the Samajwadi Party, who alleged that the RTI act was
implemented under “US pressure”.
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