CPI asks govt to exempt political parties from RTI ambit

The CPI today asked the government to exempt political parties from the ambit of the Right to Information Act but not to dilute the measure.
Maintaining that the law strengthened transparency in public life, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said that necessary clarifications about the status of political parties in the RTI Act should come through Parliament only.
"We are for transparency in the income-expenditure accounts, donor's list of political parties as we are accountable to the people" but internal organisational affairs were "confidential to political parties" and that is why they should not come under the RTI act, he said.

Reddy also disagreed with the Central Information Commission's ruling that political parties should be brought under the RTI ambit as they received substantial financial help from the government, saying the help, if any, was not at all substantial.