In a joint memorandum, more than 120 leaders from various parties of the INDIA bloc have written to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw urging the government to repeal a provision n the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act that dilutes the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Section 8(1) (j) of the RTI Act allows personal information to be disclosed if the larger public interest justifies such disclosure. The Opposition pointed out that Section 44 (3) of the DPDP Act alters this provision of the RTI Act. Now even if the information is related to a public activity or interest, it cannot be disclosed under RTI. The DPDP Act which has already got Presidential assent, also removes the crucial proviso in the RTI Act that stated, “information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State legislature shall not be denied to any person.”
Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan, DMK’s M.M. Abdulla and RJD spokesperson Nawal Kishore, addressed a press conference in Delhi on the issue. “This is a surreptitious, mischievous and malicious attempt by the government to undermine the RTI Act,” Mr. Gogoi said. Mr. Brittas, who was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee that reviewed the Act, said the Opposition had pointed out the deleterious effect the Data Bill would have on RTI by way of dissent notes to the final report, but all this was ignored.
“RTI was a milestone in the trajectory of our nation. It empowered citizens to directly hold the government responsible. In one stroke, the government has done away with the RTI,” Mr. Brittas said. Ms. Chaturvedi said the government wanted to take the country from “right to information” to “road to ignorance”. “The RTI has played a huge role in uncovering corruption. By diluting RTI, the government does not want its wrongs to be revealed,” she said.
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