Indian Express: Thiruvananthapuram: Thursday,
January 26, 2017.
Facing flak
for his comments on the Right To Information Act, Kerala Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan today said the CPI(M)-led LDF government would not dilute the
path-breaking act and any propaganda against this was “false” and
“unfortunate”.
In a Facebook
post, he said he did not say anything against the Right To Information (RTI)
Act, but only reminded those who seek information under the law that they
should be able to differentiate between information which can be disclosed and
which cannot be made public.
“There will
be no move from the part of the Left Democratic Front government to dilute the
RTI Act. Any interpretation against this is baseless,” he said.
Inaugurating
a seminar on RTI Act here last week, the Chief Minister had said that
information on all decisions of state cabinet cannot be disclosed under RTI.
Vijayan’s
statement was criticised not only by opposition parties, but also by CPI, a key
ruling LDF ally.
CPI state
Secretary Kanam Rajendran had reacted that LDF had the responsibility to
protect the RTI and any decision taken against the interest of the Act cannot
be acceptable.
In an
apparent response to Rajendran, Vijayan said “attempt to disgrace this government
by equating it with its predecessor, which denied information on corruption
even if it was sought under the RTI Act, is against the interests of the Left’s
democratic values.”
“There is no
meaning to expect a different approach on this mattter from a person who
belongs to a movement which fought for this Act for long,” he said referring to
himself.
“There will
be many who try to create misunderstandings about the stand regarding RTI. But,
what will happen if those, who are responsible to make them understand the
truth, take a different stand?” he said in an apparent poser to ally CPI.
The Chief
Minister clarified that what he said in his last week’s speech was that the
government would take necessary steps to strengthen the Information Commission.
“Interpreting
it (the statements) as an attempt to weaken the Act was unfortunate and false,”
Vijayan added.
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