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Mrs. Sonia GandhiPresidentIndian National Congress

Dear Mrs. Gandhi,

As you know, on 3rd June, 2013, the Central Information Commission (CIC) passed an orderdeclaring six national political parties, public authorities under the Right to Information Act and

ordered them to appoint Public Information Officers by the 16 th of July 2013. In response, theCentral Government proposed amendments to the RTI Act, reportedly to remove political partiesfrom the ambit of the Act. On the 1st of August, 2013, the Union Cabinet cleared the amendmentsfor introduction in Parliament during the monsoon session.

According to reports, political parties have several misgivings about the CIC order and a majority of them are in favour of the proposed amendments. The National Campaign for Peoples Right to

Information (NCPRI) believes that even if there are certain concerns that political parties haveregarding the CIC order, any move to amend the RTI Act would be most unfortunate and injudicious.The RTI Act is a landmark legislation which has empowered common people to participate in ourdemocracy in an informed manner. It has been a long held position of the RTI community that theRTI Act should not be amended. In 2009, when the Government was mulling over amendments tothe RTI Act, the Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had assured Parliament, inresponse to a question, that there would be meaningful and widespread public consultation beforeany amendment Bill is tabled in Parliament. Unfortunately, in this instance, the amendments havebeen framed and passed by the Cabinet in secrecy, without any public consultation at all.

As a way to initiate a public dialogue on the political parties' concerns related to the CIC order andon their position vis--vis the proposed amendments to the RTI Act, we are writing this open letterwith a set of questions which we believe raise fundamental issues related to the obligation tohonour the law and constitutional principles. We request you to respond to the following questions:

1. Why has your party not complied with the orders of the CIC? If in your opinion the CIC's order isnot legally sound, why have you not appealed it in Court? By neither complying with the CIC's ordernor challenging it in Court, are you not violating the concept of rule of law that forms the bedrock of our constitutional democracy? Would this not set up a very bad precedent for other institutions that

may not agree with certain orders of statutory bodies?

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2. Do you believe that any proposal to amend the RTI Act must be discussed with the people andcivil society widely as it relates to their fundamental 'right to know'? Will you be willing to endorseour demand that the Government of India honour its assurance given in response to a Parliamentaryquestion in 2009 that the RTI Act will not be amended without holding public consultations?

3. Will your party support amendments giving political parties blanket exemption from the RTI Act?If yes, please tell us the reasons for your decision, considering eight years ago you included all otherprivate/non-governmental organisations that are substantially financed by the government underthe ambit of the RTI law.

These questions are posed, not by way of an RTI application, but in an attempt to initiate ameaningful public debate on this issue.

We appeal to your party to hold public discussions before taking a position on the matter. This

would provide an opportunity to connect with and understand the nature of public expectationsfrom political parties. Most importantly, we are convinced that it would lead to a more reasoneddecision, with greater acceptance and efficacy.

Looking forward to your response.

Thank you,Best regards,Aruna Roy, Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey, Shailesh Gandhi, Shekhar Singh, Harsh Mander, VenkateshNayak, Bhaskar Prabhu & Rakesh Dubbudu

(On behalf of the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information)