New Delhi, Oct 12: 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 the 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 on the 20th anniversary of the Act, which was introduced on October 12, 2005.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also accused the Modi government of “systematically corriding” the RTI Act and “hollowing out” democracy and citizen’s rights.
In a post on X, Kharge said that 20 years ago, the Congress-led UPA government ushered in a new era of transparency and accountability, and the RTI was the first of its several “transformative rights-based legislations”.
“In the last 11 years, the Modi government has systematically corroded the RTI Act, thereby hollowing out democracy and citizen’s right,” Kharge said in his post.
He claimed that in 2019, the Modi government “hacked away” at the RTI Act, seized control over the information commissioners’ tenure and pay, and converted independent watchdogs into servile functionaries.
“The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, gutted the RTI’s public interest clause, weaponising privacy to shield corruption and stonewall scrutiny,” Kharge alleged. (PTI)
