The Oommen Chandy Government has issued a notification to sabotage the RTI Act because it fears that it will be kicked out if its true colour is known to the people. This is perfect proof of the hypocrisy of the Chief Minister (Oommen Chandy) who keeps boasting about his Government’s transparency… Bid to weaken the RTI Act in this manner is unacceptable.”
CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan has been quoted as saying this in March, 2016, just over two months before he became Kerala’s Chief Minister, about the refusal of the then Congress-led UDF Government to divulge information regarding the controversial decisions the State Cabinet had taken towards the end of its tenure.
The lDF Government has taken a position that information on certain decisions cannot be divulged till their implementation and RTI activists say that this is a violation of the provisions of the RTI Act.
The CPI(M)-led lDF Government headed by Pinarayi is now accused of citing the same reasons the former regime had cited to justify its refusal to give out information regarding decisions taken at Cabinet meetings. Kanam Rajendran, State secretary of the CPI, second biggest partner of the lDF, had the other day launched an attack against the CPI(M) and Pinarayi over this.
The former Chandy Government had faced the charge that most of the decisions the Cabinet had taken towards the end of its tenure were in violation of the rules. However, the UDF regime was allegedly determined not to divulge information on those decisions. The CPI(M) and the lDF had made this one of their main campaign points against the UDF in the last Assembly election.
After the lDF came to power, the State’s then Chief Information Commissioner Winson M Paul ordered handing over of information regarding the Cabinet decisions to an RTI activist but the Pinarayi Government effectively rejected the directive. Instead, it approached the court to earn legal sanctity for its decision.
The new Government had in its very first days constituted a Ministerial sub-committee to review the controversial decisions taken by the former UDF Cabinet, the report of which is yet to come out even as Pinarayi Government has completed eight months in office.
According to RTI activists and legal experts, information on Cabinet decisions, reasons for such decisions and the facts that had led to those decisions could be given out under the Act. “But the former Government was and the new Government is depending on interpretations of the conditions to deny information on Cabinet decisions to those who seek it,” said an RTI activist.