Sonia Gandhi slams govt for 'diluting' RTI

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi Thursday targeted the government over dilution in the Right to Information Act and evoked late Indira Gandhi saying that though national integration was her passion, the former Prime Minister did not equate “unity with uniformity”.

“On the contrary, she was deeply conscious of India’s many diversities. She was profoundly sensitive to India’s many cultural traditions,” Mrs Gandhi said while giving away the Indira Gandhi award for national integration to Chandi Prasad Bhatt.

“She (Indira Gandhi) was for strengthening the country’s cultural and political unity. She believed in accommodation and strengthening our many diversities. She also realised that without social and economic policies which actively promote equality and integrity, India cannot progress,” Mrs Gandhi said. The event was also attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Earlier in a statement, she accused the Modi government of diluting the powers of information commissioners through amendments to the RTI Act and termed it as a “final assault” to decimate the historic legislation.

The amendments passed will ensure that no information commissioner shall be free from interference and signaling by the Modi government, she said. “We have opposed these amendments in Parliament and will continue to oppose them in practice. We condemn this piecemeal destruction of our democratic institutions and will continue to fight the Modi government in these self-serving actions which are the very opposite of national interest,” she said.

Mrs Gandhi said that the RTI Act was a historic legislation that gave birth to an institution that in the last 13 years had become a “sentinel of democracy, transparency and accountability to the common man”.

"The BJP government has now launched its final assault to decimate RTI. To further erode and dilute its effectiveness, the Modi government has passed amendments which diminish the office of the information commissioner in a manner that it leaves them at the mercy of the very government they are required to hold accountable," the statement added.