Activists stand for keeping political parties under the RTI Act

National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms have appealed to all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs to not support the proposed amendment of the Right to Information Act 2005.

“Bringing political parties under the purview of the RTI Act is merely a step forward in the same direction to ensure accountability by all political platforms to the citizens of India.

The suspicion that this may be detrimental to the internal functioning and strategies of the political parties is completely misplaced. On the contrary, lack of information about the political parties leads to disconnect between the parties and the common man. Bringing political parties under RTI will help bridge that gap and the common man will be able to engage with the parties. The amendment to the RTI Act, if passed, will add substantially to the already widespread resentment across masses and widen the distrust between citizens and the leaders”,they said in common letters to these MPs.

These letters are signed by state co-ordinators of state election watch teams. This demand is supported by over 1200 organizations which are members of National Election Watch across India.