Modi has not looked more human than he has in recent days. Possibly the perfect time for the Congress to raise the temperature. Sonia Gandhi did just that in the Lok Sabha today when she specifically targeted the ‘failure of institutional mechanisms’ in the NDA government .
The post of the Chief Information Commissioner has been vacant for more than 8 months after Rajiv Mathur retired in August last year. The Delhi High Court had only yesterday asked the Information Commissioner to fill in for the CIC, and asked the government what steps it was taking to fill the post. The government is expected to submit its response by May 11.
In a stinging attack on the Centre, Sonia claimed Modi was reneging on his election promise of transparency and good governance. She also accused the government of systematically subverting the functioning of the RTI Act and shield itself from public scrutiny and accountability.
On March 11, the DoPT which is under the PMO, transferred the financial powers of the CIC to a government appointed secretary.... There is not provision of the Act that allows the government to take over these functions in the absence of a CIC.
- Sonia Gandhi, President, Indian National Congress
Sonia questioned the Modi government’s intent to blunt anti-corruption agencies by keeping the posts of the Lokpal and Central Vigilance Commission vacant. She said the government had shown extraordinary urgency to pass several legislations in the Parliament, but refused to push the Whistleblower’s Protection Act 2011, which has not been put into effect even though it received Presidential consent in May 2014.
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