Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi hold regular parleys to sort out thorny issues including major cabinet reshuffle, several members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) have strongly criticised the government for keeping the CBI out of the ambit of the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
Aruna Roy, a member of the NAC headed by Sonia Gandhi who doggedly fought for the enactment of the Right to Information during the UPA-I in 2005, was enraged over government decision to exempt CBI to provide information.
Without mincing words, she said, “On one hand the government talks about transparency and accountability, and on the other make such amendments to an existing law without proper consultations?”
She made it clear that the NAC plans to counter the Cabinet move and take up the issue with the UPA. Roy is the third NAC member to have strongly opposed the cabinet move.
Earlier, NAC members Harsh Mander and Dr Naresh C Saxena had hit out at the UPA Government and said, “We will definitely launch a strong protest against the government decision as there is no need to provide blanket immunity to the CBI,” Mander declared.
Mander also stated that Section 8 of the Act provided: no person may be given access to information that will impede an investigation or prosecution process or endanger the life or the safety of any witness or disclose the identity of informants working with law enforcement agencies.” Therefore, there was no justification for such a cabinet decision.
However, Dr Saxena, said, “It has to be first passed by parliament and only then the rule becomes a law. That has not happened so far.”
