August 04, 2019

Is India’s government weakening the public’s right to information?

topic:	Humans
located:	India
editor:	Tish Sanghera

India’s Right To Information Act (RTI) came into existence in 2005 after several years of activist campaigns. The Act mandates that all government authorities must disclose details about their operations and funding, while empowering Indian citizens to ask questions when such information is not available. Any request for information must be responded to within 30 days, mirroring similar ‘Freedom of Information’ laws in other countries.

But this facility – which has been key to exposing significant data on the state of government finances, the success of demonetisation and more – is in jeopardy.

Parliament passed the Right To Information (Amendment) Bill last week, amidst strong disapproval from a rarely united opposition. Under the amendment, the central government now has the right to hire and fire an Information Commissioner at any time, as well as decide the length of his tenure and size of his salary.

Activists and legal experts say the Information Commission is now beholden to the government and the department’s independence is compromised. Opposition leaders have called the bill’s passing “a dark day for democracy”, while seven former ICs held a press conference strongly condemning the government’s move and pointing out there is no viable reason why the amendment should be made. The past few days have also seen protests at the capital led by the National Campaign for the People’s Right To Information (NCPRTI) followed by heavy-handed responses from the Delhi police who detained members of the group.

With an overwhelming parliamentary majority, the Bill is one of the first casualties of a parliament dominated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However in truth, the RTI mechanism has been in decline for a while. As of June, 9,000 out of 30,000 RTI requests had been pending for over a year and 4 out of 10 Information Commissioner posts were vacant. Media reports also suggest disinterest in the ‘the people’s right to know’ is endemic within the current administration, which is squirming under recent revelations of sizable bank defaulters and the amount of black money entering from abroad.

A clampdown on disseminating information and pervading anxiety over the government’s performance was seen earlier in the year too. In January, members of the National Statistics Commission (NSC) resigned in protest over the government’s attempts to suppress unemployment figures and later, over GDP data accuracy. Align with the NSC and the Election Commission, the Information Commission is yet another institution whose reputation has been wrecked by those currently in power.

The BJP ironically benefitted from the RTI Act when it was in opposition, using it to reveal numerous scams under the Congress government. Now in power, it seems it is unwilling to be subjected to the same scrutiny.

(Image HT File Photo)