The Telegraph India: New Delhi: Monday, July 16, 2018.
In the Lok
Sabha bulletin for legislative business of the upcoming monsoon session, one
bill stands out because it is the only one about which no details have been
furnished.
The bill
seeks to amend the Right to Information Act of 2005, and the ironical
opaqueness has alarmed transparency advocates who have mounted a pushback.
As many as 18
bills are listed for introduction, consideration and passage in the monsoon
session, scheduled to begin on July 18.
For 17 bills
listed under the "E" category of new bills, some detail or the other
of the "purport" has been provided or there have been consultations
with the stakeholders as in the case of the changes in the GST law.
However, in
the case of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, all that the
"purport" column says about the draft legislation is "To amend
the Right to Information Act, 2005".
This has
upset not just transparency activists but also users of the RTI route as
repeated efforts to get details of the amendments from the ministry of
personnel, public grievances and pensions have been stonewalled.
Officials
refused to part with information on the nature of the proposed changes,
although the government's pre-legislative consultation policy, adopted in 2014,
mandates that all draft legislation (including subordinate legislation) be
placed in the public domain for 30 days for comments.
Also, a
summary of comments has to be made available on the website of the ministry
concerned before the bill is sent to the cabinet for approval.
Shailesh
Gandhi, a former central information commissioner, questioned the move to amend
the Act. "We have one of the best RTI Acts in the world. NOBODY should
bring any changes in it. WE need better implementation. Focus on that," he
tweeted amid fears that the government was trying to dilute the law.
The National
Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information has decided to mobilise opinion
against the bill in collaboration with groups like the National Alliance of
Peoples Movements, Anti-Corruption Team, National Right to Food Campaign, the
National Federation of Indian Women and state-level RTI campaigns.
All parties
and the Union minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions
have been invited to a Jan Manch in the capital on Wednesday the first day of
the monsoon session to clearly state their position on the RTI law and the
anti-corruption legislative architecture.
An online
petition to the Prime Minister, launched on Saturday, had drawn over 15,000
signatures in 24 hours. In the petition, RTI activists said: "You had
promised the people of India a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat (corruption-free
India). One of the most powerful ways to fight corruption in a democracy is to
empower people with the right to information. It is therefore shocking and
concerning that your government is proposing to bring regressive amendments to
the RTI Act in a surreptitious manner."
The petition
also flagged the fact that the government was yet to operationalise the
Whistleblowers Protection Act, passed more than four years ago.
"We, as
citizens of India, empowered by the RTI Act, demand that it not be amended.
With the increasing number of attacks on RTI users, the government should focus
its efforts on better proactive disclosure of information and offer protection
to people who show truth to power by exposing corruption and wrongdoing,"
it said.
Nikhil Dey,
who has been with the RTI movement since its early days, described the bill as
a new ModiMadeDisaster looming ahead.
"No Lokpal
no Whistleblowers protection. cronyism through SECRET electoralbonds and now,
secret amendments to the RTI. SaveRTI and SaveDemocracy," he tweeted.
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