That politicians will ever remain the fountainhead of corruption became clear with the self-proclaimed clean PM Manmohan Singh’s government to come out with an Ordinance to circumvent the Central Information Commission order bringing political parties under the purview of RTI. Early this month the CIC had ruled that six political parties– the Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM, NCP and BSP came under the purview of the transparency legislation.
The move is set to anger the votaries of greater transparency in politics and further vilify politicians. The law ministry has reportedly sent a draft Ordinance to the department of personnel and training, the nodal agency for all RTI matters. The government wants to change the definition of public authority in the Act so that it could exempt political parties. Being covered by the RTI would have forced greater levels of transparency and probity in political parties by forcing them to answer uncomfortable questions. Most parties are opposed to being included under the ambit of RTI, and the Ordinance is likely to find rare bipartisan support at a time the government has struggled to get crucial legislations passed in Parliament.
The RTI Act defines a public authority as anybody or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under the Constitution or by any other law made by the Parliament or a state legislature. It also covers bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by the central or state government. The phrase substantially financed was the key in the CICs decision to bring political parties under the RTIs ambit.
During the course of a hearing, the full bench of the CIC accepted the contention of the applicants RTI activist Subhash Agrawal and non-profit organisation ADR which argued that political parties receive income-tax exemptions, large tracts of land at concessional rates, government bungalows in the heart of the city, free airtime on Doordarshan and All India Radio and electoral rolls and this should amount to substantially financed. It also said that political parties affect the lives of the citizens, directly or indirectly in every conceivable way and are continuously engaged in performing public duty. It is, therefore, important that they become accountable to public, it added. All political parties, with the exception of the Left, have argued that they are not government funded and are not public authorities and so should not be brought under the RTI Act.
