RTI activists welcome CIC ruling to bring parties under RTI ambit; feel the need to keep up pressure to make it a reality

Chennai:

Rights activists and civil society have welcomed the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) ruling that political parties should come under the ambit of Right to Information Act stating that it will usher in transparency in the political system.

Coordinator of Tamil Nadu Election Watch and associate professor of humanities in Indian Institute of Technology Sudarshan Padmanabhan said that it is just the beginning and there is need to keep pressure on the government to make it reality.

He rejected political leaders claims that the act will be misused and said there are adequate checks and balances in the act. “There has been lack of inner party democracy in the party besides parties entering into murky financial dealings. Now this will all be probed by people,” he says.

RTI activist and National Alliance for People’s Movement Arul Doss says the ruling gives more teeth to the act as well as empowers the common man in questioning the running of political parties which control the vital organs of the state.

Arul said the biggest challenge now is how to take it forward and called for the formation of separate entity headed by apex court judges and RTI activists to ensure that the political parties comply with the ruling.

“Now one can question how the parties are generating funds and what they are doing with it. This is a boon for RTI activists,” said Arul Doss.

He also stated that CIC should also bring the private entities under RTI.

Research scholar and RTI activist R Natrajan said that the ruling would make parties cautious in nominating candidates with shady past. “Since the political parties come within the ambit of RTI people will now be trying to verify the background of each and every candidate nominated by the party and whether they have any criminal antecedents,” said Natrajan.

He also hoped the parties would not challenge the order as opposing it will earn them a bad name.

But Shankar K, a RTI activist and a assistant professor says it is too early to predict whether this will become a reality. “The politicians will try hard to scuttle the order. They may even take it to parliament so that they can remain outside the purview of RTI,” he says.