The Lok Sabha on Monday passed several controversial amendments to Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2019 amid objections by the Opposition which accused the Modi Government of converting the Central Information Commission to a “toothless tiger” and settling score for its stringent orders in the past.
Initiating the debate, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor charged that the commission is penalised for its past orders on revealing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s education qualifications and NPA in banks. The Bill was passed by voice vote after the Congress staged a walkout.
The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2019 takes away the stature of information commissioners who are on par with election commissioners, with their salaries and service conditions to be specified by the Government.
Rejecting the Opposition’s charge that the Bill will weaken the RTI Act, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the Government is fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution. Justifying the amendments, the Minister of State for Personnel said the Bill aims at institutionalisation, streamlining and ease of delivery of the Act.
When the Minister sought consideration and passage of the Bill, several members of the Opposition, including from the BSP and the TMC, called for a division opposing it which was defeated 218 by 79 votes. After Leader of the Congress Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s demand for clarification was disallowed by the Speaker, members of the Opposition parties staged a walkout.
Leading the Opposition charge during the debate on the Bill, Tharoor said that under the proposed changes the Government can hire and fire independent information commissioners. “It is not Amendment bill but elimination bill,” he said.
The Act was a monumental achievement for the country’s democracy and it challenged the vested interests of the Government, he said.
Tharoor pointed out that Bill has been brought “without any public consultation”. “Why is the government desperate to rush through the bill? Is it because the Central Information Commission (CIC) delivered an order on the Prime Minister’s educational detail,” Tharoor asked. He noted the four posts of information commissioners are lying vacant in CIC.
“The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is a deliberate attempt to undermine theI Act and make it toothless tiger like National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),” Tharoor alleged.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the opposition is “misguiding” the people by saying that the government wants to weaken theI Act by bringing the bill. “From the beginning of its first term in 2014, the Modi government has brought transparency in governance for greater public participation,” Singh said.
“I urge the opposition to support the amendment toI Act, so that we can streamline the functioning ofI Act and remove anomalies,” he added. A Raja (DMK) said due to the proposed amendments, the Information Commissioner is going to be a “house maid” (of the government).
Jagdambika Pal (BJP) said that the government wants to make the Act more effective. The RTI Bill seeks to give the government powers to fix salaries, tenures and other terms and conditions of employment of information commissioners, he said.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram took a swipe at the government in Lok Sabha, saying it should not use its “303 to massacre the spirit” of the transparency law. He expressed the hope that the government will not use its 303 MPs in the the House to give a “death sentence” to the spirit of the law. “I hope the government will not use ‘303’ to massacre the spirit of Iaw. I request you to withdraw the Bill,” Chidambaram said, referring to the BJP’s strength in Lok Sabha.
AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi was equally scathing in his criticism as he alleged that the government was “afraid of the Rs 10 request of a garib chowkidar” through which he can get information about its functioning. Describing the introduction of the bill in Lok Sabha as “blackest day” in the history of Parliament, RSP MP N K Premachandran said it is an insult to the House.
Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy termed the bill as “regressive”. He also questioned as to why the government was “in a hurry” to get the amendment passed. Bhartruhari Mehtab (BJD) alleged that the bill was an assault on the idea on federalism and asked, “Why are we weakening the RTI rchitecture?”
Through the Bill the government was trying to dilute the right to information and block information, BSP’s Danish Ali alleged and made an appeal to the government to take back the amendment Bill.
