Modi govt weakening RTI in name of data protection, claims Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday accused the Modi government of weakening the Right To Information (RTI) Act in the name of data protection and asserted that his party will keep fighting against the "dictatorial" regime to secure the rights of the people.

Kharge asserted that the Congress will not let RTI weaken and will continue to raise its voice from the streets to Parliament.

"On one hand, India has been topping the charts on Misinformation and Disinformation for the past years and on the other hand, the Modi government is bent on weakening the Right To Information (RTI) Act implemented by the Congress-UPA by bringing in the Data Protection law," the Congress chief said in a post in Hindi on X.

Whether it is information in the public sector like the list of ration cards, beneficiary labourers of MGNREGA, names of people involved in public welfare schemes, voter list in elections, or the names of scamster billionaires who fled abroad after taking loans from government banks - it is important for the public to have the names of all these in the public domain, he asserted.

But now the Modi government is weakening the RTI in the name of Data Protection, due to which such names will no longer be made public, Kharge claimed.

The Right to Privacy is a fundamental right, and the Congress has fought for it, but when it comes to Public Welfare, the Right to Information is necessary, he asserted.

The Right to Privacy was also taken care of in the RTI brought by the Congress, but this does not mean that the list of beneficiaries or the names of scamsters should not be made public, Kharge said.

"The Congress party will not let RTI weaken, we have raised our voice for it earlier also, and will continue to raise our voice from the streets to the Parliament. We will keep fighting against this dictatorial government to secure the rights of the people!" the Congress chief said.