The Print: New Delhi: Monday, July 7,
2025.
In 'Journalism through RTI', Shyamlal Yadav unravels how news was collected through persistent efforts using RTI.
With travel
details of 71 ministers, backed by extensive data, there were apprehensions
that many angry rejoinders and demand for corrections were bound to follow.
Fortunately, we did not get many. One of them was a call we received from MoS
Chandrashekhar Sahu complaining that figures of his expenses were wrong. But
when we explained it to him, giving sufficient proof citing the original
documents, he was convinced. Another doubt on the data was raised by Jairam
Ramesh. He called up Group Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla, and when he asked
me to clarify, I showed him the data received from the PMO. After that Jairam
Ramesh did not press for a rejoinder. There were facts, there was data, there
were documents and there were certified copies of information, so there was no
possibility of rejoinders. That is the beauty of the RTI Act for a journalist.
That the story had an impact was quite apparent. On June 4, 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to his ministers to “severely curtail expenditure on air travel, particularly foreign travel, except in cases where it is deemed to be absolutely necessary”, seeking their “full co-operation in this matter of importance and urgency.” This letter was more than sufficient endorsement of the issues raised in the story.
For the follow up stories, RTI applications were sent at regular intervals to the PMO, Cabinet Secretariat and various ministries. Later, the Pay and Accounts Office of Cabinet Affairs informed us that while the foreign travel expenditure of Union Ministers (Cabinet Ministers and MoS) was Rs 122.79 crore during 2007–2008, it had come down to a mere Rs 20.37 crore in 2008–2009. Though, admittedly, in 2006–2007, the expense on foreign travel of union ministers was Rs 14.98 crore, the year 2007–2008 (Lok Sabha polls were due in 2009) had seen a huge surge in spending. It was clear that the story had its desired impact, prompting the government to take austerity measures which saved over Rs 100 crore to the public exchequer.
Air India and Frequent Flier Mileage Points
To continue keeping an eye on ministers’ foreign trips, an RTI application was filed with Air India to find out the frequent flier Mileage Points ministers under the UPA-I had earned out of their foreign visits and who had travelled using those points. I was curious to know how the ministers utilize the Mileage Points they earn from official trips.
This was based on a hunch that ministers must be receiving Mileage Points from official trips and utilizing them for personal travel and for their relatives and friends. Within a week of filing the application, a reply was received from the Deputy General Manager at IGI Airport, Bharat Chaturvedi, who said, “We are forwarding your application to our headquarters and shall revert.” After waiting for over a month, a reminder was sent to Chaturvedi, who replied the same day: “This is an extensive/voluminous exercise in nature and being worked out. Same shall be completed within next week or so. In view of the above, we shall revert to you at the earliest, possibly before March 20, 2008.” On March 20, the given date, Chaturvedi responded, “As per the information we received from headquarters the information on your question is being compiled and we shall revert on receipt of reply from them.”
A reply was received from the CPIO of Air India, which said:
The information requested by you includes commercial confidence, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive interest of the passengers as also the airline which is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act. Further, the information which is available with us is in fiduciary relationship and we do not feel that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of this information.
When I called the officer concerned informally to understand the reason behind his U-turn and unexpected denial, he clarified that he had all the information compiled, but before dispatching it, had consulted his senior official concerned who had advised him not to dispatch it, but to issue a denial. So, crucial information of public interest was kept from being disclosed and remained in its secret domain. And this was under the same UPA government which had implemented the RTI Act.
The very same day a first appeal was filed before Jitendra Bhargava, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Air India. He responded justifying the CPIO’s response,
While I do agree that the information sought by you is in public interest, there is another aspect to it that of Air India’s commercial interests. If Air India makes public the information with respect to use of frequent flier mileage earned by ministers of the Union Cabinet, the airline runs the risk of losing business as some of these ministers, as well as other government officials, who generally travel on Air India, could think of shifting to private carriers.
In response, a second appeal was filed on April 21, 2008, to the CIC. This appeal was heard on July 17, 2008, and this was my first appearance before an Information Commissioner. When I appeared before the Commissioner Prof M M Ansari, the Air India representative had already left. I clearly remember what Ansari had asked me that day: “What will you do with the information?” I said being a journalist I needed it for a news story. During hearing of the matter Ansari said that the information I sought was personal information and has commercial confidence. Reminding him that ministers were public figures and information about them was of public interest, I left his chamber.
A couple of days later the order was uploaded on the CIC website, which upheld the decisions of the CPIO and the First Appellate Authority (FAA). The CIC order said:
The disclosure of selective information in respect of the identified Ministers could be misused for humiliation and harassment of any passenger… In view of this, the denial of information on the ground of commercial confidence u/s 8(1(d) of the Act is justified.
What was becoming increasingly apparent was a clear case of double standards being played out. There were no provisions to stop ministers from using the Mileage Points they earned from official trips, for their personal use. But the DoE (Department of Expenditure) issued a circular for government officials banning use of frequent flier Mileage Points earned during official trips for personal travel:
All mileage points earned by government employees on tickets purchased for official travel shall be utilised by the concerned department for other official travel by their officers. It is the responsibility of the officer concerned to ensure that free mileage points are used only for official travel and not for personal trips.
When the DoE was asked whether the circular was applicable for union ministers too, it replied that “Orders are applicable to Central Government Employees only.” So, ministers keep enjoying Mileage Points earned from their official trips on their personal trips as usual.
Later, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution responded that a Minister’s wife accompanied him as free companion during his three foreign visits between September 13, 2009 and February 2012. The Ministry of Minority Affairs also revealed that one of its Ministers’ spouse had visited the United States in May 2010 as his free companion. It may have been the practice in other ministries as well, but other ministries did not respond to the queries sent by the author or provide such information.
This excerpt from Shyamlal Yadav’s ‘Journalism through RTI’ has been published with permission from Routledge.
In 'Journalism through RTI', Shyamlal Yadav unravels how news was collected through persistent efforts using RTI.
That the story had an impact was quite apparent. On June 4, 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to his ministers to “severely curtail expenditure on air travel, particularly foreign travel, except in cases where it is deemed to be absolutely necessary”, seeking their “full co-operation in this matter of importance and urgency.” This letter was more than sufficient endorsement of the issues raised in the story.
For the follow up stories, RTI applications were sent at regular intervals to the PMO, Cabinet Secretariat and various ministries. Later, the Pay and Accounts Office of Cabinet Affairs informed us that while the foreign travel expenditure of Union Ministers (Cabinet Ministers and MoS) was Rs 122.79 crore during 2007–2008, it had come down to a mere Rs 20.37 crore in 2008–2009. Though, admittedly, in 2006–2007, the expense on foreign travel of union ministers was Rs 14.98 crore, the year 2007–2008 (Lok Sabha polls were due in 2009) had seen a huge surge in spending. It was clear that the story had its desired impact, prompting the government to take austerity measures which saved over Rs 100 crore to the public exchequer.
Air India and Frequent Flier Mileage Points
To continue keeping an eye on ministers’ foreign trips, an RTI application was filed with Air India to find out the frequent flier Mileage Points ministers under the UPA-I had earned out of their foreign visits and who had travelled using those points. I was curious to know how the ministers utilize the Mileage Points they earn from official trips.
This was based on a hunch that ministers must be receiving Mileage Points from official trips and utilizing them for personal travel and for their relatives and friends. Within a week of filing the application, a reply was received from the Deputy General Manager at IGI Airport, Bharat Chaturvedi, who said, “We are forwarding your application to our headquarters and shall revert.” After waiting for over a month, a reminder was sent to Chaturvedi, who replied the same day: “This is an extensive/voluminous exercise in nature and being worked out. Same shall be completed within next week or so. In view of the above, we shall revert to you at the earliest, possibly before March 20, 2008.” On March 20, the given date, Chaturvedi responded, “As per the information we received from headquarters the information on your question is being compiled and we shall revert on receipt of reply from them.”
A reply was received from the CPIO of Air India, which said:
The information requested by you includes commercial confidence, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive interest of the passengers as also the airline which is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act. Further, the information which is available with us is in fiduciary relationship and we do not feel that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of this information.
When I called the officer concerned informally to understand the reason behind his U-turn and unexpected denial, he clarified that he had all the information compiled, but before dispatching it, had consulted his senior official concerned who had advised him not to dispatch it, but to issue a denial. So, crucial information of public interest was kept from being disclosed and remained in its secret domain. And this was under the same UPA government which had implemented the RTI Act.
The very same day a first appeal was filed before Jitendra Bhargava, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Air India. He responded justifying the CPIO’s response,
While I do agree that the information sought by you is in public interest, there is another aspect to it that of Air India’s commercial interests. If Air India makes public the information with respect to use of frequent flier mileage earned by ministers of the Union Cabinet, the airline runs the risk of losing business as some of these ministers, as well as other government officials, who generally travel on Air India, could think of shifting to private carriers.
In response, a second appeal was filed on April 21, 2008, to the CIC. This appeal was heard on July 17, 2008, and this was my first appearance before an Information Commissioner. When I appeared before the Commissioner Prof M M Ansari, the Air India representative had already left. I clearly remember what Ansari had asked me that day: “What will you do with the information?” I said being a journalist I needed it for a news story. During hearing of the matter Ansari said that the information I sought was personal information and has commercial confidence. Reminding him that ministers were public figures and information about them was of public interest, I left his chamber.
A couple of days later the order was uploaded on the CIC website, which upheld the decisions of the CPIO and the First Appellate Authority (FAA). The CIC order said:
The disclosure of selective information in respect of the identified Ministers could be misused for humiliation and harassment of any passenger… In view of this, the denial of information on the ground of commercial confidence u/s 8(1(d) of the Act is justified.
What was becoming increasingly apparent was a clear case of double standards being played out. There were no provisions to stop ministers from using the Mileage Points they earned from official trips, for their personal use. But the DoE (Department of Expenditure) issued a circular for government officials banning use of frequent flier Mileage Points earned during official trips for personal travel:
All mileage points earned by government employees on tickets purchased for official travel shall be utilised by the concerned department for other official travel by their officers. It is the responsibility of the officer concerned to ensure that free mileage points are used only for official travel and not for personal trips.
When the DoE was asked whether the circular was applicable for union ministers too, it replied that “Orders are applicable to Central Government Employees only.” So, ministers keep enjoying Mileage Points earned from their official trips on their personal trips as usual.
Later, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution responded that a Minister’s wife accompanied him as free companion during his three foreign visits between September 13, 2009 and February 2012. The Ministry of Minority Affairs also revealed that one of its Ministers’ spouse had visited the United States in May 2010 as his free companion. It may have been the practice in other ministries as well, but other ministries did not respond to the queries sent by the author or provide such information.
This excerpt from Shyamlal Yadav’s ‘Journalism through RTI’ has been published with permission from Routledge.
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