How BJP used RTI to embarrass Congress

NEW DELHI: Although the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government cites the Right to Information Act (RTI) as one of its key achievements, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made good use of it by obtaining data on controversial issues to embarrass the administration. In last four years, the RTI cell of the BJP, probably the only recognised political party to have such a unit, has filed more than 2,000 applications under the transparency law on various issues, said national convenor Vivek Garg. “The cell would continue to function even if the BJP comes to power (after the election),” he said.

Information that the BJP uncovered has contributed to the discrediting of the UPA. “The law has certainly benefitted opposition parties like BJP in mounting pressure by exposing corruption in government but it would be difficult to say whether it was the Congress or the BJP which got maximum political mileage,” said Zoya Hasan, a political analyst and professor at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

In September 2011, Garg’s team got its hands on a file with a noting on spectrum allocation that seemed to put finance minister P Chidambaran in the line of fire. Based on other documents, Garg filed a petition that accused former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, former head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi and others of wrongdoing in the preparations for the 2010 event.

Congress spokesman Raj Babbar said opposition parties may have used RTI "cleverly" to show the UPA in bad light but it should be given credit for a law that aims to curb corruption by empowering the common man. “I think we failed to use RTI to gain public support. Nonetheless, we would definitely think of having an RTI cell after the elections,” he said.

An advocate by profession, Garg said the idea of setting up an RTI cell to train party workers in using the law to expose corruption came from Delhi BJP leader Harsh Vardhan in 2008. “Seeing the success of our work in Delhi, the top brass decided to form a national RTI cell in 2009,” he added. The cell, which has eight lawyers, has conducted workshops for party workers on using the transparency law to obtain crucial documents.

The BJP hasRTI cells in at least five other states--Maharashtra, Haryana, Mizoram, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. “We were able to obtain several important documents on issues such as the Adarsh scam, the builder-politician nexus in Mumbai and others,” said Yashwant Shinde, convenor of BJP’s RTI cell in Maharashtra.