Centre ‘systematically killing’, ‘weakening’ RTI Act, alleges Cong
New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday accused the Modi government of “systematically killing” and “weakening” the Right to Information Act, which was brought by its UPA government two decades ago with an aim to bring in transparency and accountability in governance.
On the 20th anniversary of Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Congress alleged that for the BJP, RTI means “Right to Intimidate”, and claimed that the ruling dispensation also made the Central Information Commission a “toothless” body with its top post as well as posts of seven information commissioners lying vacant for a longtime.
“For the BJP, RTI means Right to Intimidate,” AICC general secretary (communications), Jairam Ramesh, said at a press conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the Act, which was introduced on October 12, 2005.
Ramesh also listed five reasons behind the Modi government acting against the RTI Act to weaken it.
He said an order by the chief information commissioner to provide information about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s MA degree in “entire political science” under the RTI Act was the first
reason, while the second was RTI information proving the prime minister wrong when he claimed that there were crores of fake ration cards in the country.
The information obtained through the RTI Act revealed that Modi’s claims were wrong, he said.
The third reason, Ramesh said, was the information revealed through RTI that just four hours prior to the demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Modi, the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India concluded that the move will not help curb black money or fake currency.
Citing the fourth reason, Ramesh said that under the RTI Act, somebody sought the list of 20 top willful loan defaulters of the country, and the CIC said the list had been submitted by the then-RBI governor to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The fifth reason, the Congress leader claimed, was the revelation through RTI that no black money had come back from abroad as had been promised by Prime Minister Modi ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
