Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'RTI Act should be applicable to all' that was published in Newsband

RTI Act should be applicable to all

The Right to Information Act is supposed to be designed for common citizens and hence should be truly owned by them.

An attempt is being made to stop political parties from being brought under the purview of the information law. Under the RTI Act, any organisation that receives substantial government assistance is a public authority. This makes the law applicable not only to the different wings of government but also to all NGOs sustained by government funding. Political parties are peculiar in that they are neither part of government nor are they wholly outside of it, like NGOs.

The problem is the almost Machiavellian manipulation by political parties to stay out of any kind of accountability, including the most critical one of financial accountability, which they evade by reporting all or most donations to be under Rs. 20,000. This allows even the mainstream parties to altogether escape scrutiny.

The drive to exempt parties from the RTI sends a message that politicians are a law unto themselves. It is a strange argument that the government itself should be accountable under the RTI but the party that forms it should not. People vote for political parties and they have a right to know who funds them, especially if big corporates are involved.

RTI is an excellent tool to curb corruption from public life and everyone must acknowledge it. Politicians and their organizations are accountable to people of India. People must create pressure over them so that we can live in corrupt free nation.

It would be absurd to want political parties not subjected to the same level of public scrutiny as of government. All entities that come into functioning through public donations including political parties, charity houses, religious bodies etc are amenable and should be subject to scrutiny under RTI.

The chief information commissioner has done a terrific job by declaring the political parties as public authority, thus paving the way for bringing them under RTI Act.

People can be proud that they fought to bring all the political parties under the purview of RTI Act, but the task is not finished yet.

It is very necessary that the political parties come under the ambit of RTI. Funding issue of all political party should come under RTI . People have right to know who fund them.

People vote for political parties, and they have a right to know who funds them. It is surprising that all the political parties are united on their right to escape from the provisions of the RTI Act.