The Congress and other major parties rejected the Central Information Commission’s order bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act in less than 24 hours but the main Opposition BJP saw nothing wrong in the move.
“We are studying the CIC’s order. The future course of action will be decided after we have studied it,” said an official of the DoPT, which acts as the nodal department for the implementation of the RTI Act.
The CIC order has divided the political class. The Congress termed it an “adventurist” approach that would harm democratic institutions. Its view was echoed by the CPI(M) and the BJP’s ally, the JD(U), which also rejected the order. “It is not acceptable. We totally disagree with it. Such an adventurist approach will do a lot of harm and damage democratic institutions,” AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said. “Getting political parties entangled in such unnecessary things will damage the democratic process,” he added.
The CPI(M) said it “cannot accept” the order that political parties are to be treated as “public authorities”. “This decision is based on a fundamental misconception about the role of political parties in a parliamentary democracy,” it said, adding, “This will interfere with and hamper the functioning of a political party.”
Expressing “astonishment and shock”, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said the order was “in no way justified” as “political parties are not shops”. Asserting that “we are totally against this move”, he wanted the Central government to scuttle the CIC move. The BJP said it was “not against anything that brings transparency and accountability which is equally applicable to all. We will follow the law”.