8, జూన్ 2013, శనివారం

Political Parties are not Public Authorities

The CIC exceeded its brief by interpreting political parties as public authorities due to its misconception about the role of political parties in parliamentary democracy. A political party is a voluntary association of individuals believing in a common ideology, programme and leadership. It seeks votes from people to come into power for implementing its manifesto. Its internal deliberations on deciding the policies, organisational matters, selection of candidates for election etc are based on confidentiality. Who said what in the meeting of a political party and how and on what basis a candidate is selected by it for election as legislator etc is purely its internal matter. Whatever may be the view expressed by a member of a political party in its internal meeting, the member has to abide by the decision taken by the party and if he is elected as a legislator, he has to speak according to the decision taken by the party, even if he differed with that in the internal meeting of the party. With in a political party, deliberations will take place on the basis of confidentiality. How a party evolves its policies through its internal deliberations and how it selects its candidates is its internal business, and it is not the concern of those who are not members of the party.It cannot be subjected to inquiries under RTI since it is not thee concern of those who are not members of the party. Once a party decides its policies and candidates it is up to the people to accept it or reject it in the elections.Therefore allowing others to intervene in the internal affairs of a political party in the guise of RTI, is uncalled for and is against the parliamentary political democracy.

But this does not mean that how a party gets its funds and expends it is to be kept as a secret. Utmost transparency is required in this regard to keep corruption in elections under control. This is as much required as safeguarding the confidentiality regarding the internal deliberations of a political party. How to ensure both is the question. RTI provisions will infringe upon the confidentiality of the deliberations of a political party.

Already the political parties have to submit their accounts to the Income Tax Department and to the Election Commission. Under RTI, these details can be obtained from the Income Tax Department or from Election Commission. If these provisions are not sufficient, it can be improved.

But allowing others to have access to the internal deliberations of a political party  is nothing but an attack on political party system under parliamentary democracy. It is like trying to kill rats by burning the house.

Hence it is necessary that the Parliament should incorporate a clarification that the political parties are not coming under the purview of the RTI.


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