The Hindu: New Delhi: Wednesday, 5th March 2025.
Congress president
Mallikarjun Kharge reiterated concerns on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) that the
Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, was weakening the Right to
Information Act, 2005. The DPDP Act, passed in Parliament two years ago, has
removed language from the RTI Act that would compel disclosure of personal
information as long as doing so had a public interest.
Activists have since 2023 flagged this amendment as something that could reduce government accountability, and enable officials to thwart social audits, such as those for ration distribution, to prevent fraud. The issue takes on significance as the DPDP Act is pending the notification that will bring its provisions, including the RTI Act amendment, into effect. The Union government is still considering public inputs into the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, which when notified would trigger the amendment.
“On the one hand, India has been coming on top in Misinformation and Disinformation for the past few years, on the other hand, the Modi government is bent on weakening the Right To Information (RTI) Act implemented by the Congress-UPA by bringing the data protection law,” Mr. Kharge said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“Right to Privacy was also taken care of in Congress’ RTI, but it does not mean that the list of [ration and other government scheme] beneficiaries or the names of the fraudsters should not be made public,” Mr. Kharge argued.
“The amendments severely restrict access to critical information & create hurdles in the struggle for accountability,” Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convenor of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) said on Monday. Ms. Bhardwaj and the NCPRI started a signature campaign this week to urge the government to “roll back” the amendment.
Activist Medha Patkar said that it was especially important to protect the RTI Act “while the nation’s democracy is under attack”. What is happening “in the name of data protection is information protection,” Ms. Patkar charged, noting that “people of Narmada Valley were able to root out 1,600 fake registries with the RTI Act,” something that would not be possible with this fresh language of the RTI Act.
Activists have since 2023 flagged this amendment as something that could reduce government accountability, and enable officials to thwart social audits, such as those for ration distribution, to prevent fraud. The issue takes on significance as the DPDP Act is pending the notification that will bring its provisions, including the RTI Act amendment, into effect. The Union government is still considering public inputs into the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, which when notified would trigger the amendment.
“On the one hand, India has been coming on top in Misinformation and Disinformation for the past few years, on the other hand, the Modi government is bent on weakening the Right To Information (RTI) Act implemented by the Congress-UPA by bringing the data protection law,” Mr. Kharge said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“Right to Privacy was also taken care of in Congress’ RTI, but it does not mean that the list of [ration and other government scheme] beneficiaries or the names of the fraudsters should not be made public,” Mr. Kharge argued.
“The amendments severely restrict access to critical information & create hurdles in the struggle for accountability,” Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convenor of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) said on Monday. Ms. Bhardwaj and the NCPRI started a signature campaign this week to urge the government to “roll back” the amendment.
Activist Medha Patkar said that it was especially important to protect the RTI Act “while the nation’s democracy is under attack”. What is happening “in the name of data protection is information protection,” Ms. Patkar charged, noting that “people of Narmada Valley were able to root out 1,600 fake registries with the RTI Act,” something that would not be possible with this fresh language of the RTI Act.
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