Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O' Brein said that his party was strongly opposed to keeping political parties outside the realm of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as the upcoming amendment seeks to do. O'Brein added that political parties cannot have double standards by allotting separate laws for the people of the country and themselves.
On August 1, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Union Cabinet had cleared crucial changes to the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep the political parties out of its ambit by declaring that they are not public authorities.
Trinamool Congress has made it clear that it is against the proposed changes.
"We are very clear that we believe political parties should be open, as practical as possible, to share their financials and their accounts (and) should be part of RTI. Political parties should not make one set of rules for themselves and one set of rules for everybody else. So, we believe that political parties should be included in the ambit of the RTI-atleast the financial part of it," Brein said here today.
Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Admi Party (AAP) earlier today held protests against the RTI amendment outside Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's residence at 7, Race Course.
According to reports, 40 to 50 protesters had gathered at 7, Race Course on Sunday and were later arrested and taken to Tughlak Road Police Station.
Media reports also suggest that a dharna against the RTI amendments will be staged at Jantar Mantar on August 6.
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The Cabinet gave its nod to amend the transparency law nearly two months after the Central Information Commission's order of bringing the six national political parties Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP under the RTI Act.
As per the amendments, the political parties as public authorities under the RTI would 'hamper their smooth internal functioning since it will encourage political rivals to file RTI applications with malicious intentions'.
The Cabinet maintains that the Representation of the People Act and the Income Tax Act provide sufficient transparency regarding financial aspects of political parties.
Under Section 2 of the RTI Act, the definition of public authority in the proposed amendment will make it clear that 'it shall not include any political party registered under the Representation of the Peoples Act'.
As proposed earlier, political parties may not be added in the list of organizations (Section 8) exempted from parting information under the information act.
During the Cabinet meeting, some members expressed the view that people should know that amending the law was not a unilateral move by the government, but was based on consensus among all political parties.
In June, the Central Information Commission, which ensures the RTI Act is implemented and public queries are answered by government departments, ruled that the six major national parties, including the Congress and BJP are public authorities and must respond to RTI applications. The parties were given six weeks to appoint Public Information Officers (PIOs) to handle RTI requests.
The decision from transparency watchdog evoked sharp reactions from political parties, especially Congress which has been credited with bringing in the transparency law but is opposed to the CIC's directive.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as nodal department for the implementation of the RTI Act, in consultation with Law Ministry had earlier decided to amend the law.