RTI activists demand sting tapes be made public

[sidmis]

RTI activists demand sting tapes be made public

AS Reported by Himanshi Dhawan, 25 Jul 2008, TNN

RTI activists hope to use public pressure to demand an independent
inquiry into the cash-for-votes scandal.

"On Tuesday, politicians put Parliament up for sale. Can we afford to
be mute spectators?" asked Kejriwal. "Rather than order any inquiry,
which is conducted in-camera or in secrecy, we request you to order
an inquiry which is thorough and is done in a completely transparent
manner. It should be conducted by people of unimpeachable integrity,"
the appeal said.

The intervention by the NGOs comes even as the BJP leadership was
still working on the draft of an FIR the party plans to file with the
police on the Rs 1 crore which its three MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan
Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - claim was offered to them
as "advance" for switching sides. The MPs claim they were offered a
total of Rs 9 crore.

"We don't want to take any chances in the case, the investigation
into which should logically reach right up to those at the top of the
UPA heap," said a source familiar with discussions on the issue in
the party. The information rights activists and others in the group
have demanded a copy of the tapes submitted by a major news channel
which collaborated with the MPs on the ''sting''.

The matter looks set to become an additional issue in the escalating
tug-of-war between UPA and NDA. While BJP leaders feel that the tapes
have enough evidence to warrant the prosecution of the bribe givers -
"the agent as well as the principal for whom he was working" - SP
general secretary Amar Singh has denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, he alleged a plot to malign him and the Congress
leadership and claimed that Sandeep Saxena, the purported bribe-giver
in the tape, did not work for him. Significantly, the NGOs who have
addressed their appeal to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also sought to
play up his image as upholder of transparency, as they appealed to
him to accept their plea.

"We hope that you will not reject our application by invoking some
exemption clause in RTI Act. RTI Act says that none of the exemption
clauses would apply if there was a larger public interest involved.
It is not the image of a few MPs or some political parties which is
at stake. Today, it is the faith of the people in Indian Parliament
and its members which is at stake. Can there be a bigger public
interest?" they asked.

The RTI queries have also sought to know what kind of inquiry has
been ordered, details of its terms and conditions and the names of
the members of the inquiry committee. They have also demanded to know
what action will be taken on the alleged horse trading.


RTI activists demand sting tapes be made public-India-The Times of India

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[ganpat1956]

Sponsorer

Hold enquiry into cash flaunted in parliament: activists
As reported By Indo-Asian News Service on Saturday, July 26, 2008

New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) Right to Information (RTI) activists and various civil society groups will hold a protest Sunday to demand an independent enquiry in currency notes being flaunted in parliament last Tuesday by three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs. They also want tapes of the sting operation to be made public.

The activists would hold their protest at India Gate Sunday evening.

They would also file RTI applications to the Lok Sabha speaker, asking for a copy of tapes of the sting operation and have requested details of the kind of enquiry that has been ordered in the case. They have also asked for the names of the enquiry committee members.

During trust vote debate in parliament July 22, three Bharatiya Janata Party MPs had flashed wads of currency notes alleging that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party leaders had given them the money as bribe to vote in favour of the government.

“On July 22, we saw how our parliamentarians and the whole democracy is becoming a mandi (market) where political leaders are openly selling themselves. What we saw was just a tip of the iceberg,” said Manish Sisodia, a RTI activist who works with NGO Kabir.

The activist’s demanded an independent inquiry into it. They wanted the MPs involved to be sent to jail and the tapes of sting operation to be made public.

“We have received a huge response from people across the capital and the country. Several Indians living in foreign countries have also filed RTI in this regard. We are expecting that over 1,000 RTI applications would be filed in this regard,” Sisodia said.

“We hope that the speaker will not reject our application citing exemption clause as larger public interest overrides all exemptions,” he added.

“We also demand that Lokpal (ombudsman) bill should be passed to prevent corruption among politicians. I urge all people to come out in large numbers to show that enough is enough and we will not tolerate corruption anymore,” said RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, Magsaysay award winner.

“If we do not raise our voice today, then probably tomorrow nothing would be left to save,” Kejriwal added.

Source: Hold enquiry into cash flaunted in parliament: activists | Latest News

[karira]

This will be a very good "test" case for RTI in India.

[sidmis]

Speaker, not RTI, holds cash tapes key

as reported by CHARU SUDAN KASTURI, The Telegraph
[LEFT]New Delhi, Aug. 8: The Right to Information Act may prove toothless in revealing the “evidence” relating to last month’s trust-vote bribery scandal unless Somnath Chatterjee lends a helping hand.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]The alleged proof — videotapes and documents — are with a parliamentary committee that is investigating the BJP charge that the UPA and its allies tried to buy off its MPs before the July 23 vote.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]Chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, the RTI Act’s apex referee, has told The Telegraph that the tapes and papers need not be revealed unless the Lok Sabha Speaker specially exempts the panel from standard House rules.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]So, India’s landmark law for transparency in public office may fail to help shed light on an incident that many MPs across parties have described as “the most shameful” in the history of India’s legislature.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has received over a dozen RTI applications asking for the tapes and other documents to be made public, officials said. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Magsaysay Award winner and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, who has also filed an application with the Lok Sabha Secretariat for the videos and documents, however, said Habibullah had “got it wrong”. [/LEFT]

[LEFT]Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act says that information that cannot be denied to Parliament cannot be denied to the public either. However, Section 8(1)(c) of the same law says that “information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the state legislature”, need not be revealed.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]The members of a Parliament committee are required to take an oath of secrecy about the proceedings of the panel and the evidence placed before it, and the committee’s findings are placed before the House only with the Speaker’s approval.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]Since revealing the videos or other documents without Chatterjee’s approval would amount to breach of privilege, Section 8(1)(c) allows the Lok Sabha to turn down RTI appeals, Habibullah explained.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]“If, however, the committee of inquiry is not a standard Parliament committee, then the RTI Act can apply,” Habibullah said.
“So the Lok Sabha secretariat is required to disclose the evidence only if the committee is exempted from the rules that bind standard House panels…. That decision is solely the Speaker’s.”[/LEFT]

[LEFT]Hours before the trust vote, three BJP members had started waving wads of notes as a rapt nation watched on television. They alleged senior Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders had given them the money as a bribe to vote for the government.[/LEFT]

[LEFT]The BJP said a news channel had tried to catch the alleged bribery attempts on camera and demanded the tapes be made public. The tapes, however, were handed over to the Speaker.
...
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Speaker, not RTI, holds cash tapes key[/LEFT]