New Delhi: As the major political parties of India had come together to get rid from transparency and accountability this year.
Transparency campaigner at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Venkatesh Nayak said, “It is surprising that our political parties which have the constitutional validity do not want to be either transparent or accountable to the people. They want to ensure that they don’t come under the new law which makes them answerable to the people.”
Nayak, with other civil society members, was speaking to journalists on the parliamentary standing committee report recommending exemption of political parties from the purview of the RTI law.
He added that in the original Lokpal Bill the government had brought any association of people which accept donations like political parties and NGOs under the ambit of the ombudsman. The standing committee exempted religious organizations and charitable trusts from the purview of the section. The government went a step ahead and got an amendment approved from Parliament deleting the section for political parties.
Nayak also said, “Not a word was uttered on the amendment in the Parliament when the Lokpal Bill was passed.”
Subhash Chandra Aggarwal, on whose petition the Central Information Commission brought six national political parties under the purview of the RTI Act in June, said he would challenge the validity of exemption to the political parties, if the government gets the amendments to the law approved by Parliament.
National Campaign for People’s Right To Information (NCPRI)’s Anjali Bhardwaj said that political parties should agree to come under the orbit of the RTI Act voluntarily as the law seeks transparency for the ‘larger public interest’.
Anjali also asked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BJP leader Arun Jaitley to clarify their stand on amendment to the RTI Act.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply