INDIA AT TURNING POINT: The Road to Good Governance by T.S.R. Subramanian

Author:T.S.R. Subramanian [Subramanian, T.S.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788129133748
Publisher: Rupa/Rainlight Publications
Published: 2013-12-17T18:30:00+00:00

RTI—Transparency of parties

Sometime in May 2013, the Central Information Commission, taking up the petition of an activist, gave its orders that the Right to Information (RTI) Act was applicable to national political parties, giving technical and legal arguments to buttress its decision. Clearly this will be challenged in the apex court, and it remains to be seen as to what is the final legal view that will prevail. However, immediately after the finding, nearly every national political party roundly condemned the decision, referred to it as impracticable and wooly-headed and said that it was un-implementable. I recall that in 1997, when I got the first draft of the RTI prepared and took it to the Cabinet, nearly every government servant from the Joint Secretary to Secretary level that I spoke to, referred to it as impracticable, un-implementable and utopian and that it would seriously hamper the internal processes of the government. The objections now from political parties heard were nearly on identical lines! It should be remembered that in 10 years of implementation, RTI has brought out more ‘facts’ in the realm of the public, than 60 years of ‘Question Hour’ in Parliament. It has done a good deal to clean up the internal processes and to give spine to officers who want to stand up within the system. In an era where our electoral processes urgently need to be cleaned up, a new Seshan is required to emerge to purge our elections from the hold of black money. Clearly this new order of the Information Commission will contribute to the commencement of the process. For decades, practical recommendations for electoral reforms have remained unimplemented, indeed have gathered dust with no attention whatever from Authority. When there is no desire to reform the system by those concerned, the reforms have to be rammed through—this is what the RTI is seeking to do. Ironically, parties which generally oppose each other on nearly every issue, have gotten together to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to oppose this move!; much like they all worked together, overtly or covertly, to kill the proposal to create a Lok Pal a couple of years back. If one were to have a referendum in the country on whether political parties should become more transparent, whether their income and expenditure details should be widely available, one imagines that there will an overwhelming response in the affirmative. It is ironical that in this ‘democracy’, political parties which control our governance, appoint the prime minister, the cabinet and other executives take a position totally contrary to what the public wants or demands. It is only in the democracy-model of this country that one can see a total dichotomy between what the public wants and what their ‘representatives’ decide.

Detailed information regarding source of every income and where and in what manner the money is spent is essential to be available in the public domain for every party. After all, it is the parties which determine the chiefs of the executive branch, and have a major role to play in governance at the Centre and in the states.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.