Govt of India seeking to turn information commissioners into 'caged parrots': Appeal to President

By A Representative
National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) leader Anjali Bhardwaj, in a public plea, has asked to concerned citizens, to send an appeal to the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, asking him to “withhold his assent to the RTI Amendment Bill.” The appeal, she says, should be sent to secy.president@rb.nic.in and presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, with a copy it to saverti2019@gmail.com.

Text of the appeal says, the RTI Amendment Bill, 2019 “seeks to undermine people’s right to information”, adding, “No public consultations have been held on the amendments and the bill was not referred to any Parliamentary committee for detailed scrutiny.”
Asserting that Amendment Bill “is aimed at eroding the autonomy of information commissions, the final adjudicators under the RTI law”, the plea says, “Information Commissioners were guaranteed a fixed tenure under the RTI Act passed in 2005. The salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief and information commissions of the Central Information Commission and Chief State Information Commissioners were fixed at the level of election commissioners.”
It adds, “The amendments seek to empower the central government to prescribe the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of information commissioners of the Central and State Information Commissions. The amendment bill, if enacted, will allow the central government to exercise control over commissions and will effectively make them ‘caged parrots’.”

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

Search This Blog