Over the past few days, as the nation grappled with the controversy over the ordinance on convicted legislators, another contentious measure — the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, that aims to keep political parties out of the purview of transparency law — is likely to create further trouble for the UPA. The Manmohan Singh government faces severe criticism from RTI activists, civil society and the social media for the changes in the RTI Act that will give political parties immunity from being answerable under the transparency law. Due to its controversial nature, the government also felt it wise to send the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2013 to Parliament’s standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice, which sought people’s suggestions on the proposed change. With the Cabinet approving withdrawal of the ordinance, it is believed the UPA will not be able to resist pressure from several quarters over the RTI Bill. The bill sought to negate a June 3 Central Information Commission order that listed six political parties as “public authorities” under the RTI law.
