While a parliamentary Standing committee today supported the move to keep political parties outside the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, committee member Anu Aga, (former chairperson of Thermax Ltd) was the lone voice of dissent on the 29 member panel. Aga who is a nominated member in the Rajya Sabha has stated in her dissent note that she considers “political parties to be public authorities because they get substantive financial funding from the government of India.” The Central Information Commission CIC ruling in June this year, directing political parties (Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPI-M) to submit details of their accounts, saw political parties across the spectrum (with the exception of the Biju Janta Dal BJD) , oppose the order. The UPA subsequently moved a Right to Information (Amendment) bill 2013 to reverse the CIC ruling.
Aga in her note appended to the Standing committee’s report elaborated that political parties get “land allotment in prime areas in national and state capitals at subsidized rates; bungalows allotted to them at subsidized rates, free airtime on Doordardshan and All India Radio during Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and they get tax exemption on donations.”
Highlighting that in “public interest” political parties should disclose information about themselves to citizens, Aga commenting on the current scenario said “very little transparency about the financial affairs of political parties.”
Explaining her stand, Aga added, political parties were required only to submit expense reports to the Election Commission and Income Tax statements to tax authorities whereas “more than 80 per cent of their income was from ‘unknown’ sources.”
Stressing the need for parties to be brought under RTI, Aga stated, “if political parties are to play a critical role in improving governance, they themselves must submit to higher standards of transparency and accountability. It is of utmost importance that financing and expenses of parties be completely transparent.”
Rejecting the contention of political parties that they could be targeted by their political rivals at will, Aga suggested that the CIC or the apex court could give a special ruling on exemption of disclosures that give an edge to its competitors/ rivals.
The Right to Information (Amendment) bill, 2013 introduced in Lok Sabha in August this year inserts an explanation in Section 2 of the RTI Act which states that any association or body of individuals registered or recognised as political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, will not be considered a public authority.
Incidentally, Congress sources had claimed that it was at Rahul Gandhi’s insistence that the amendment bill had been referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Personnel.
