The Indian Express: Opinion: Tuesday, 14th
October 2025.
The recently passed (but yet to be implemented) Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) threatens to destroy the power and utility of the RTI Act, as well as severely curtail freedom of expression in the country
Beawar, in central
Rajasthan, likes to call itself the “RTI City.” Today, it stands at a
crossroads of historical significance for India’s democracy. On October 12, the
RTI Act completed 20 years, and Beawar marked 30 years of its struggle for the
path-breaking legislation. It was a moment when people could, with justification,
say they created history.
This sense of accomplishment led the municipality of Beawar to unanimously, and across party lines, resolve to build a memorial at the Chang Gate where a protest was held in 1996 to demand transparency in information to mark Beawar’s contribution to the RTI movement and the powerful law that followed.
When Beawar became a district in 2023, the municipality passed a resolution to set aside land for an RTI Museum to document and exhibit the contribution of ordinary people to the movement, and to serve as a resource place and inspiration for the further expansion of the people’s right to know and the deepening and strengthening of Indian democracy. At the site where the museum is being built, the MKSS and the School for Democracy held the first RTI Mela it will be an annual event to make the people’s initiative for transparency and constitutional values a part of the area’s cultural ethos.
Ironically, however, October 12 was a moment of celebration as well as a time for disappointment and deep apprehension for the people’s Right to Information. The RTI Act has been celebrated as one of the most powerful citizen-centric measures that opened up government and redefined the relationship between citizens and the state. It also became an important tool to change the imbalance of power within the system.
But the recently passed (but yet to be implemented) Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) threatens to completely destroy the power and utility of the RTI Act, as well as severely curtail freedom of expression in the country. Section 44(3) amends the RTI Act by essentially using the excuse of protecting “privacy” and “personal information” to ensure that, after the Act is notified, nobody will be entitled to ask for, or obtain, the name of any person for their acts of omission and commission. The devastating effect of the amendment is clear to all those who have been using the RTI Act to demand accountability.
In a meeting in Beawar on the eve of their unique celebration, one of the speakers made a very interesting comment. He said, “We fought for and obtained the people’s Right to Information, in which the sealed vessel containing information was opened and exposed. We celebrated this, and used it to demand accountability and helped establish that ‘the right to know is the right to live’. However, we now discover that through the DPDPA , the government has very cleverly made a hole at the bottom of the vessel, so that everything of meaning is leaked out, and we are left holding an empty vessel called the RTI. The shell of the RTI Act remains, but the information that empowers us has disappeared.”
It is a very apt story, because at the moment when India should be celebrating the Right to Information Act, one amendment has rendered the landmark law meaningless.
We need to understand exactly what the DPDPA does to the RTI Act. Section 44(3) amends other acts, including Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. Section 8(1) j of the RTI Act creates a harmony between the Right to Information and the Right to Privacy by exempting from disclosure “information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest”. This section, therefore, also clarified that information related to public activity or interest could not be private or personal. The importance given to public interest is clear from Section 8(2), which creates a public interest override for the exemption clause · the “public authority” has the right (as it should) to disclose any information in public interest. It, however, must be kept in mind that the power of the public authority is a discretionary power of the government it essentially empowers the state in any pressing circumstances to disclose information. It has introduced a blanket exemption on “personal information” without any qualifiers. Also, the decision to override the exemption is a discretionary power of the government, and not a power that lies with citizens.
One of the most powerful provisions in the RTI Act is the line that explicitly equates the power, authority, and privilege of the ordinary citizen with the elected representative, who they elect through their vote. It is quite unique in Indian law and states, “Provided that information that cannot be denied to a legislature or Parliament, cannot be denied to a citizen.” This has been deleted through the amendment.
The RTI has empowered people to identify and expose and reform, with the help of proof, officials engaged in corruption, and mitigate the arbitrary exercise of power. It helps in holding accountable those who block the realisation of our rights and entitlements. Without names being revealed, the RTI will only become a platform for propaganda. The DPDPA goes further: It not only shields the corrupt from being exposed, but also gags anyone from revealing the truth without permission from the person being exposed. It invites fines of Rs 250 crore. A law that should have been made only for a handful of metadata companies has been applied to all citizens, including journalists, academics, politicians, and RTI activists. It is one of the worst legal threats to Indian democracy.
It is not as if there have not been protests. More than 150 MPs , more than 2,500 journalists and 22 national journalist associations, countless civil society organisations, and lakhs of people have submitted strong objections in writing to the government. But it refuses to engage in democratic consultation.
But the people will not give up. The ordinary people in and around Beawar fought for RTI and its use when there was no law. That is why the museum they are building will not be a place to remember a “dead law”, but a living space that will inspire more and more battles for open and accountable government. The government should remember that it can amend a law, but it cannot stop or cancel a movement.
The writers are social activists and founder members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
The recently passed (but yet to be implemented) Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) threatens to destroy the power and utility of the RTI Act, as well as severely curtail freedom of expression in the country
 |
| The DPDPA goes further: It not only shields the corrupt from being exposed, but also gags anyone from revealing the truth without permission from the person being exposed. |
This sense of accomplishment led the municipality of Beawar to unanimously, and across party lines, resolve to build a memorial at the Chang Gate where a protest was held in 1996 to demand transparency in information to mark Beawar’s contribution to the RTI movement and the powerful law that followed.
When Beawar became a district in 2023, the municipality passed a resolution to set aside land for an RTI Museum to document and exhibit the contribution of ordinary people to the movement, and to serve as a resource place and inspiration for the further expansion of the people’s right to know and the deepening and strengthening of Indian democracy. At the site where the museum is being built, the MKSS and the School for Democracy held the first RTI Mela it will be an annual event to make the people’s initiative for transparency and constitutional values a part of the area’s cultural ethos.
Ironically, however, October 12 was a moment of celebration as well as a time for disappointment and deep apprehension for the people’s Right to Information. The RTI Act has been celebrated as one of the most powerful citizen-centric measures that opened up government and redefined the relationship between citizens and the state. It also became an important tool to change the imbalance of power within the system.
But the recently passed (but yet to be implemented) Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) threatens to completely destroy the power and utility of the RTI Act, as well as severely curtail freedom of expression in the country. Section 44(3) amends the RTI Act by essentially using the excuse of protecting “privacy” and “personal information” to ensure that, after the Act is notified, nobody will be entitled to ask for, or obtain, the name of any person for their acts of omission and commission. The devastating effect of the amendment is clear to all those who have been using the RTI Act to demand accountability.
In a meeting in Beawar on the eve of their unique celebration, one of the speakers made a very interesting comment. He said, “We fought for and obtained the people’s Right to Information, in which the sealed vessel containing information was opened and exposed. We celebrated this, and used it to demand accountability and helped establish that ‘the right to know is the right to live’. However, we now discover that through the DPDPA , the government has very cleverly made a hole at the bottom of the vessel, so that everything of meaning is leaked out, and we are left holding an empty vessel called the RTI. The shell of the RTI Act remains, but the information that empowers us has disappeared.”
It is a very apt story, because at the moment when India should be celebrating the Right to Information Act, one amendment has rendered the landmark law meaningless.
We need to understand exactly what the DPDPA does to the RTI Act. Section 44(3) amends other acts, including Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. Section 8(1) j of the RTI Act creates a harmony between the Right to Information and the Right to Privacy by exempting from disclosure “information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest”. This section, therefore, also clarified that information related to public activity or interest could not be private or personal. The importance given to public interest is clear from Section 8(2), which creates a public interest override for the exemption clause · the “public authority” has the right (as it should) to disclose any information in public interest. It, however, must be kept in mind that the power of the public authority is a discretionary power of the government it essentially empowers the state in any pressing circumstances to disclose information. It has introduced a blanket exemption on “personal information” without any qualifiers. Also, the decision to override the exemption is a discretionary power of the government, and not a power that lies with citizens.
One of the most powerful provisions in the RTI Act is the line that explicitly equates the power, authority, and privilege of the ordinary citizen with the elected representative, who they elect through their vote. It is quite unique in Indian law and states, “Provided that information that cannot be denied to a legislature or Parliament, cannot be denied to a citizen.” This has been deleted through the amendment.
The RTI has empowered people to identify and expose and reform, with the help of proof, officials engaged in corruption, and mitigate the arbitrary exercise of power. It helps in holding accountable those who block the realisation of our rights and entitlements. Without names being revealed, the RTI will only become a platform for propaganda. The DPDPA goes further: It not only shields the corrupt from being exposed, but also gags anyone from revealing the truth without permission from the person being exposed. It invites fines of Rs 250 crore. A law that should have been made only for a handful of metadata companies has been applied to all citizens, including journalists, academics, politicians, and RTI activists. It is one of the worst legal threats to Indian democracy.
It is not as if there have not been protests. More than 150 MPs , more than 2,500 journalists and 22 national journalist associations, countless civil society organisations, and lakhs of people have submitted strong objections in writing to the government. But it refuses to engage in democratic consultation.
But the people will not give up. The ordinary people in and around Beawar fought for RTI and its use when there was no law. That is why the museum they are building will not be a place to remember a “dead law”, but a living space that will inspire more and more battles for open and accountable government. The government should remember that it can amend a law, but it cannot stop or cancel a movement.
The writers are social activists and founder members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
.JPG)
.JPG)
