Accusing the BJP Government of subverting Right to Information Act (RTI), Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "blatant U-turn" on the issue of transparency by keeping key posts of Chief Information Commissioner, CVC and lokpal vacant and saying that the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat were "no longer accountable".
Making a statement in the lok Sabha, she maintained that the CIC's post was lying vacant for over eight months and the posts of three Information Commissioners for over a year, resulting in the backlog of 39,000 cases. Sonia had also raised the same issue earlier in the day while chairing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting and later outside Parliament. Party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi reiterated his ‘soot-boot ki sarkar' barbs and echoed Sonia's concern on RTI.
She said citizens no longer have the right to question the Government as top offices like the PMO, Cabinet Secretariat besides the Supreme Court, High Courts and CAG are no longer accountable for violations under the RTI and protected from public scrutiny.
Sonia said the PM had made many promises on "good governance" and "transparency" but has now made "a blatant U-turn" on them. The Congress president had given a notice for an adjournment motion on the issue in the lok Sabha but was allowed by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to raise it after the Question Hour.
The Government, however, rejected her charge, with Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh saying the CVC's post was not yet fulfilled as the Supreme Court was overseeing the matter while a search committee was close to shortlisting candidates for the CIC's post, applications for which were publicly invited by the Government in the "interest of transparency". He said by advertising the post, the Modi Government has only contributed to transparency.
Singh said while the process of appointment of CVC was on after the post fell vacant on September 28 last year, there was court litigation. He denied the charge that the PMO took control of the CIC after the end of the term of Rajiv Mathur and said that only financial powers were delegated to Secretary, DoPT for sometime before the Secretary, CIC, was given the responsibility.
On the lokpal issue, he said there was no fixed term for the jurist on the committee and therefore, the Government has brought an amendment restricting it to three years.
Not satisfied with the response, Congress members walked out of the House as Singh maintained that that posts of information commissioners had remained vacant even during the UPA's term.
"Information delayed is information denied. This is simply not acceptable. Protecting wrongdoers cannot be part of any Government ethos," she said. Sonia pointed out that the lokpal's post was vacant and the Whistleblower's Bill not notified despite getting the President's assent in May 2014, and took a dig at the Government saying it has otherwise shown "extraordinary urgency" in pushing Bills.
Talking to her party MPs at CPP, Sonia accused Modi of running a Government "of some people, by one person, for a select few" by "centralising" power and "weakening" the State's strength. She also accused Modi of playing domestic politics on foreign soil. Rahul too questioned why the Government was keeping the posts of RTI commissioner, lokpal and CVC vacant.