The CPI-M Tuesday backed the government's decision to amend the Right to Information law to ensure political parties do not come under it.
"Political parties are not public authorities, the decision taken by political parties do not affect the public," Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said.
Following a petition by RTI activist S.C. Agrawal, the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruled that political parties were public authorities who now need to respond to RTI queries within six weeks.
Six national parties: the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Nationalist Congress Party , the CPI-M, the Communist Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party, would come under RTI, according to CIC decision.
The union cabinet has approved introduction of a bill in the monsoon session of parliament that began Monday to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005, to exclude political parties from the definition of a public authority for the purpose of the act.
