Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari on Friday supported the Union Cabinet’s decision to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the matter of granting immunity to political parties.
While talking to media persons, he observed, “Political parties in the country do not function on the Government’s money. The prospect of bringing political parties under RTI was, therefore, not viable. The Bill that will be brought into Parliament is fine. The places in which the Government grants go, where money goes from the budget, the RTI is fine there.” Commenting on the possibility of there being a lack of financial transparency on the part of political parties in the wake of the proposed amendment to the RTI Act, Gadkari said that if there are allegations against political parties for misusing government funds, an enquiry could be carried out without bringing them under the RTI Act.
“If some party has taken the Government’s money, or misused budgetary funds, then an investigation can be carried out against them,” Gadkari said. Notably, on Thursday, after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, the Cabinet gave its consent to amend the transparency law to keep political parties out of its ambit and reasoned that they are not public authorities. The Cabinet’s decision came out almost two months after the Central Information Commission (CIC) ordered six political parties-BJP, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bahujan Samaj party- be brought under the RTI Act. On June 3, the CIC’s order held that since the Central Government has substantially funded these six national parties indirectly, they should be required to appoint Public Information Officers (PIOs) as they have the character of a public authority under the RTI Act.