Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge (PTI image)
NEW DELHI: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, alleging that it has “systematically corroded” the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as the landmark transparency law completed 20 years of its implementation.In a post on X, Kharge wrote: "In the last 11 years, the Modi Govt. has systematically corroded the RTI Act, thereby hollowing out Democracy and citizen’s right."
Kharge said the Congress-led UPA government, under the leadership of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi, had introduced the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005, marking the beginning of a new era of transparency and accountability in governance.Listing his concerns, Kharge cited the 2019 amendments to the RTI Act that allowed the Centre to control the tenure and salaries of Information Commissioners. He also criticised the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, saying that it had weakened the RTI’s public interest clause and used privacy rules to protect corruption."The Central Information Commission has been functioning without a Chief Information Commissioner — the seventh time in 11 years this key post has been left vacant.
It currently has 8 vacancies, unfilled for over 15 months, paralysing the appeals process and denying justice to thousands," the Congress leader further wrote. The Congress MP further accused the government of promoting a “no data available” culture by withholding key information on COVID-19 deaths, the NSSO 2017–18 survey and the PM CARES fund. He also highlighted the killing of over 100 RTI activists since 2014, calling it a “climate of terror that punishes truth-seekers.”The Right to Information Act, 2005, was introduced by the UPA government and came into effect on October 12, 2005. It grants citizens the right to seek information from public authorities to ensure transparency in governance. The law replaced the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, and established Central and State Information Commissions to oversee its implementation.The RTI Act was amended in 2019 to give the Centre greater control over the service conditions of Information Commissioners. Further changes under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, exempted personal information from disclosure. |
