CHENNAI: With the Union Government taking a firm stance that political parties do not come under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, parties in the State have unsurprisingly echoed the view, saying their inclusion would be ‘unnecessary’. “The Preamble of the RTI Act clearly states that the law is for government and government-affliated agencies. Hence, it is legally incorrect to say that political parties are covered under the Act. After all, political parties are a private association of people registered with the Election Commission,” argues DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan.
The legal battle to make political parties liable to reply to public queries is being fought in the Supreme Court after they declined to heed two orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) - in 2013 and March 2015. The Commission had reasoned that since the political parties discharged public duties and received substantial funding from the government by way of subsidised land and tax benefits, they came under the definition of ‘public authorities’ and were hence covered by the RTI Act. However, most political parties in the State are in agreement with the Union Government that the Act does not apply to them. They feel that any such move will hamper their day to day functioning and decision-making processes.
“Our party’s stand is clear. Any member of the public can know about our sources of funds and our account books are open for scrutiny. We have declared it on our website. But we are not for RTI queries on the decision-making processes of our party. For example, questions like how a person was selected for a post cannot be answered. There are lot of things meant to be confidential within a party,” says U Vasuki of the CPM.
Another common reason cited by political parties for resisting the view is that they already have their accounts open to the Election Commission’s scrutiny. As per the Representation of Peoples Act, every political party must submit the details of donations received by it, if the amount exceeds Rs 20,000. They have to submit their annual audit reports. “So, there are enough checks and balances. Any member of the public seeking to know about finances of a party can get it from the Election Commission and Income Tax Department. Candidates submit the details of their assets and liabilities as well. But bringing parties under the RTI Act will hamper their daily activities and give rise to unnecessary questions,” says BJP leader H Raja. A search on the Election Commission website, however, reveals that a few major parties had in the subsequent years submitted they did not receive any donation exceeding Rs 20,000.