Indian Government Weakens the RTI Act Without Any Justification

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(Edited)

Despite strong protests from Opposition leaders, transparency activists & general public; Indian government managed to pass the controversial amendment bill for RTI Act 2005 in both the Parliament houses today.

The shocking news is that the bill went through in spite of the fact that ruling government does not enjoy a majority in the upper House.

Looks like opposition party was just playing politics by demonstrating their opposition to the said Bill. The bill was opposed strongly in Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha. Some opposition members even staged a walk out.

A walk-out in Lok Sabha made sense to me as Opposition was in minority there. But how does a walk-out by Opposition in Rajya Sabha makes any sense?

Perhaps, opposition too wanted this bill to go through as it's a matter of time that they are in a opposition today and some day they too hope to become a part of the ruling side.

With this amendment, Government has cut the tooth and nail of the world's best transparency act. Although they say they haven't altered the autonomy, the amendment makes Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (IC) a puppet of the Central Government. Now Central Government has got the power to change the tenure of appointment of CIC & ICs. It can even alter their salaries at its whims.

Earlier their tenure was fixed for 5 years and their cadre was considered equivalent to constitutional posts like Chief Election Commissioner for CIC. The pay for State CIC & Central ICs were equivalent to Election Commissioners and for State ICs to that of a Chief Secretary.

I can't understand why this Government is spending so much energy to fix something that isn't broken at all. RTI Act-2005 is one of the best transparency act and is working very well.

Of course, there are some hidden motives of this government which we don't know yet. But this kind of step shows this power-hungry government's intention to take control of each and every damn thing with no consideration to the adverse impact it may bring in future. Excess power is always helpful and enables it to interfere and manipulate several affairs whenever needed.

  • With such a precedent, do you think this government will face any problem in passing the controversial draft bill for banning of cryptocurrencies in India?


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