Twenty years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted, the landmark law, meant for democratic accountability, finds its framework in tatters. The general opinion, backed by the Congress and civil society groups, is that the ruling party has systematically weakened transparency institutions and silenced information seekers.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has gone to the extent of saying that “for the BJP, the RTI means Right to Intimidate.”
Passed in 2005 under the Congress-led UPA government, the Act empowered citizens to seek information from public authorities, laying the foundation for a new era of transparency.
Jairam Ramesh listed key instances where RTI disclosures had exposed or contradicted government claims, from the Prime Minister’s educational qualifications, to demonetisation justifications, and fake ration card narratives.
According to him, the turning point came in 2019 when Parliament passed amendments that gave the Centre control over the tenure, salary, and service conditions of Information Commissioners. “The first major blow to the law came with the July 2019 amendment,” he was quoted as saying. He added that he had challenged the changes in the Supreme Court, where the case remains pending.
The Congress also alleged that the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act further weakened the law by expanding the definition of “personal information” and overriding the RTI’s public interest clause. “Section 44(3) of the Act says that no personal information will be accessible under the RTI,” Ramesh said. This, he argued, would effectively block access to key disclosures like electoral bond purchasers, wilful loan defaulters, and public officials’ asset declarations.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, wrote: “In the last 11 years, the Modi Govt. has systematically corroded the RTI Act, thereby hollowing out Democracy and citizen’s right.” He accused the government of fostering a “no data available” culture, citing withheld information on Covid-19 deaths, the NSSO 2017–18 survey, and PM CARES fund usage.
“Since 2014, over 100 RTI activists have been murdered, unleashing a climate of terror that punishes truth-seekers and extinguishes dissent,” Kharge wrote.
Vacancies Vacant
Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunsi and KPCC working president PC Vishnunadh alleged that the 2019 amendments and the DPDP Act together stripped the RTI framework of its autonomy.
They pointed to long-standing vacancies, including the post of Chief Information Commissioner, lying vacant since September. As of June 2024, they said, over 4.05 lakh appeals and complaints were pending across India’s 29 commissions.
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president YS Sharmila called the RTI Act a “diamond weapon” that has empowered citizens like no other law since the Constitution. She criticised the BJP for diluting it to “shield corrupt individuals” and demanded full restoration of the Central Information Commission’s strength and independence.
Seconding the view, Haryana Congress president Rao Narendra Singh called the weakening of RTI a “direct attack on democracy”, while district president Vardhan Yadav said the party would work to restore the law as “a powerful weapon in the hands of the people”.
Across India, civil society groups echo these concerns. A report by Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) revealed that seven out of 29 information commissions were non-functional for significant periods in 2023–24. The Central Information Commission has had no new appointments since May 2014 without judicial intervention, and the Jharkhand commission has remained defunct for over five years. The Supreme Court in October 2023 warned that the RTI Act would become a “dead letter” if vacancies were not filled.
Reports have pointed out that Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, amended through the DPDP law, now restricts access to personal information regardless of public interest. Critics say this could prevent citizens from accessing data such as voter lists, loan default records, names of contractors, or details of corrupt officials, all on grounds of privacy.
The amendment, reports highlighted, also removed the RTI clause that said “information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person”.
Claim of no data
Meanwhile, the central government has repeatedly claimed in Parliament and RTI responses that it has “no data” on Covid oxygen deaths, competitive exam paper leaks, natural disaster losses, or even the reasoning behind nationwide revisions of electoral rolls.
The Election Commission recently stated that it had no internal records on the decision to conduct Special Intensive Revisions (SIRs) of voter lists across the country in 2025.
Gujarat Awaits Answers
In Gujarat, which has seen some of the earliest and most sustained use of RTI, more than 21 lakh applications have been filed since 2005, among the highest in the country.
The urban development, home, and revenue departments alone account for nearly 58% of these. But a study by Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) revealed that 40% of departments still host outdated or incomplete information on their websites, violating the mandatory Proactive Disclosure (PAD) rule.
“In some cases, the ‘latest updates’ were found to be up to 17 years old, particularly in the UDD, which ironically, receives the most RTI queries,” the study reportedly said.
The Gujarat Information Commission has fined 1,284 Public Information Officers (PIOs), with penalties exceeding Rs 1.14 crore, but systemic reluctance persists. MAGP also highlighted the killings of 18 RTI activists in the state over two decades, including Vishram Dodiya and Amit Jethwa in 2010, and five others in 2011: Jabardan Gadhvi, Nadeem Saiyeed, Jayesh Rathod, and Amit Kapasia.
BJP Defends Itself
Responding to the criticism, BJP leaders rejected the opposition’s allegations as politically motivated. Arvind Saini, BJP’s state media in-charge in Haryana, said, “The Modi government has only strengthened transparency and accountability through digital governance. The RTI framework continues to function effectively, and any claim that it has been weakened is baseless.”
Rao Narbir Singh, Haryana’s industries and commerce minister, said, “The BJP government has not weakened the RTI Act; we have strengthened transparency through digitisation and direct public access to information. From online portals to real-time grievance redressal systems, our focus has been to make governance more accountable, not less. It is the Congress that is attempting to politicise an issue it failed to uphold with integrity during its own tenure.”
The Way Ahead
Civil society groups have called for repealing the 2019 amendments, removing regressive provisions from the DPDP Act, and enforcing the Whistleblower Protection Act passed in 2014. They also demand that all vacancies in information commissions be filled without delay, and that oversight bodies include members from journalism, academia, and civil society.
The RTI Act ought to be a vital pillar of Indian democracy, but it must now be defended to remain effective.
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