Aruna Roy, 6 others to boycott PM’s address at RTI convention on Friday

Leading RTI activists Aruna Roy, Subhash Chandra Agarwal, Rakesh Dubudu and others said they will boycott Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s inaugural address to the National RTI Convention, organised by the Central Information Commission (CIC) on October 16-17, in protest against the government’s decision not to invite some activists on ‘security’ concerns.

At a press conference here on Thursday, Roy said she and six others who have been invited for Modi’s session will boycott it in solidarity with those who did not receive an invitation. This year marks a decade of the Right to Information (RTI) law.

Reportedly, the CIC wanted to invite activists and users from across the country but was prevented from doing so by the government, the activists ​said, adding that, if true, “this interference of the government severely hampers the independence and freedom of the CIC to engage with people at large.”

However, Roy said “some of us who have been invited to speak at technical sessions will participate in these as we appreciate the CIC’s initiative to engage with civil society and people’s movements to improve transparency and accountability in the government.”

In a statement, the Roy-led National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) alleged that Intelligence Bureau had done background checks and verification of RTI activists. ”Many were sent an email that they were not being invited to the convention due to “security reasons”, it said, adding that “every year since 2006, the Prime Minister of the day has addressed the convention and there have never been these kinds of restrictive measures.”

Stressing that the RTI law grew from a grassroots struggle, with wide civil society participation, Roy alleged that this year even the names recommended by State Information Commissions have been rejected reportedly because of so-called “security concerns”.

The NCPRI said it will use the RTI to probe the sequence of events and will fight to establish the independence and pro-people democratic mandate of the CIC. “The RTI is a people’s law and we will use RTI to save RTI,” it said.

​The annual convention of the CIC is a congregation of RTI activists to discuss issues related to implementation of the transparency law across the country.​ Apart from the Prime Minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of State Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, will also be present at the event.

COMMENT NOW