CIC to govt: 65 yrs on, let us hear Jinnah
The CIC has asked the government to take a view on disclosure of two speeches made by Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah from the pre-Indepen-dence era which are in the archives of All India Radio and explain the reasons for withholding them if it intends to do so.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyana-nda Mishra said that more than 60 years after the country’s independence the time has come when all concerned must decide what information relating to the pre-Independence period should be made available to the public.
“It is easy for any public authority to take the stand that everything relating to Pakistan or the leaders who went over to Pakistan should be kept secret or confidential and invoke the provisions of Section 8(1)(a) and not disclose the details. This will be a regressive stand,” Mr Mishra said. History students and the general public interested in learning about the most important period of India’s history would always like to have access to such valuable records, he said.
“It is the duty of the state to make such records available freely to the public so that the citizenry becomes informed and research scholars get valuable material,” Mr Mishra said in his order.
The case relates to an RTI application filed by activist Subhash Agrawal who sought copies of Jinnah’s pre-Indepen-dence speeches which are held in the AIR archives.
Prasar Bharti later said these recordings could not be disclosed and cited Sec. 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
The CIC directed AIR to proactively publish on its website a list of all recordings of leaders who went to Pakistan after Independence which can be made available to the public without having to invoke any exemption provisions of the RTI Act. “Needless to say, while doing this care must be taken to ensure maximum disclosure, a period of 60 years having blunted many of the raw feelings of those days even if some of these recordings might contain such references,” he said.
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