THE historic Right to Information Act has once again been saved from going under the politician’s scalpel, proving that the law, designed for common citizens, is now truly owned by them. … Under the RTI Act, any organisation that receives substantial government assistance is a public authority. This makes the law applicable not only to the different wings of government but also to all NGOs sustained by government funding. …

One genuine area of concern arising from the Central Information Commission order related to disclosing internal, strategic decisions of parties. Political parties are peculiar in that they are neither part of government nor are they wholly outside of it, like NGOs. In their private space, parties compete with one another almost like entrepreneurs. This means they must be afforded privacy with regard to decisions that impact their winnability….

So far so good, but the problem is the almost Machiavellian manipulation by political parties to stay out of any kind of accountability, including the most critical one of financial accountability…. This subterfuge allows even the mainstream parties to altogether escape scrutiny. … The special status they have sought militates not only against the constitutional vision of equality but undermines democracy itself. If the ultimate objective of any political party is to form a government, it is a strange argument that the government itself should be accountable under the RTI but the party that forms it should not. People vote for political parties and they have a right to know who funds them, especially if big corporates are involved. Over to the Standing Committee, to which the Bill has now been referred. — (Sept 7)