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PRESS RELEASE 04-05-2016

Two year report card of the government on issues of transparency and accountability The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) held a press conference today to discuss the performance of the Modi government on issues of transparency and accountability. The two years of the government have seen no progress on anti-corruption legislations. In fact even existing legislations and mechanisms are being undermined. The press conference was addressed by NCPRI co-convenors Anjali Bhardwaj and Nikhil Dey along with Dhanajay Dubey and Sanjay Sahni. Dhananjay Dubey is the brother of slain whistleblower Satyendra Dubey who was killed in 2002 for exposing corruption in the NHAI project and Sanjay Sahni is a colleague of Ram Kumar Thakur who was shot dead in Muzzafarpur in March 2013 for exposing corruption in NREGA. Anjali Bhardwaj of the NCPRI said that even though the government came to power on the plank of anticorruption and good governance, it has failed to live up to any of its promises and commitments on the issuethe Whistle Blowers Protection Act (WBP Act) & the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (LL Act)- both of which were passed by Parliament and received the assent of the President more than two years ago, have not been operationalised till date. The demand for a comprehensive Whistle Blowers Protection Act (WBP Act) started in 2002 when Satyendra Dubey, an engineer on the golden quadrangle project, was murdered for exposing corruption in the project. Finally in 2014, after 12 years of the murder of Satyendra Dubey, the WBP Act was passed when families of whistleblowers and activists of NCPRI held protests for over 20 days. The WBP Act provides protection of identity for whistleblowers and safeguards against their victimisation. Dhananjay Dubey said that despite assurances from senior BJP leaders including Shri Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad that they were committed to the WBP Act, the government had taken no steps to prevent deaths of whistleblowers by operationalising the WBP law. Close to 60 people have been killed in the last few years for exposing corruption and wrongdoing in the government. Sanjay Sahni said that lives of whistleblowers like his colleague Ram Kumar Thakur could have been saved if the WBP Act was operationalised- Ram Kumar Thakur wrote to the Police and the state government seeking protection, however no action was taken. Activists said that instead of promulgating rules to operationalise the WBP law, the government has moved an amendment bill in Parliament which seeks to severely dilute the Act. The amendments seek to remove safeguards available to whistleblowers from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act and also introduce wide-ranging exclusions by stating that disclosures should not contain information which would prejudicially

affect the sovereignty, integrity, security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State. The current status of the WBP Amendment Bill is not clear. Whereas the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha and the proposal to refer it to a select committee was not concluded, however, on April 28, 2016 the concerned Minister, in reply to a question in Parliament, stated that the Amendment Bill had been sent to a committee. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (LL Act) was notified in the gazette in January 2014. The Lokpal & Lokayuktas Act has not been operationalized despite the passage of more than two years since the Act was notified in the official gazette. An amendment was required to ensure that in the absence of a recognised leader of opposition, the leader of the single largest party in opposition is included in the selection panel for appointing the Lokpal. Instead of moving the single amendment and quickly operationalizing the Act, the government has moved several amendments to the Act. The Amendment bill called the “the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and Other Related Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014”, was deliberated upon by the Department related Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice which presented its report in December 2015. The amendment bill is currently pending before the Lok Sabha. Among other issues, the amendments seek to dilute the Lokpal Act by exempting bureaucrats from declaring assets and liabilities of their spouses and dependent children. Further, the amendment does away with the requirement of public disclosure of the asset declarations on the grounds that disclosure of such information might expose public servants and their families to threats and kidnappings. Nikhil Dey of the NCPRI said that despite public disclosure of asset declarations of lakhs of candidates contesting elections across the country and of judges of the SC and HCs, no evidence of threats/blackmail had come to light and therefore, there is no rationale for this amendment. The proposed amendments to the PCA, require the prior approval of the Lokpal to investigate cases of corruption related to decisions or recommendations made. In the context of the Lokpal not being set up and operationalised, it is unclear, how these provisions will take effect. On the grievance redress (GR) bill, the BJP government had repeatedly stated that it was committed to reintroducing and passing the GR bill which had lapsed with the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha. In fact, in a communication dated 24.06.2014, the PMO stated that passing the GR bill was “part of Immediate Thrust Areas of the Government”. The concerned minister in Parliament in December 2014, February 2015 & May 2015, had reiterated that the government was “committed to bringing in a legislation for ensuring effective redressal of grievances of citizens related to non-delivery of entitled goods and services by the Government.” However, in March 2016, in response to a question in Parliament, the government made no reference to the legislation and instead stated that it was preparing a scheme known as Delivery of Services and Grievances Redressal Scheme – 2015. Anjali Bhardwaj of the NCPRI said that from these statements of the government made in Parliament, it appeared that the government is reneging on its commitment to bring in a statutory framework for time-bound and effective redress of grievances. Providing a legal framework for grievance redress was also a commitment made in the sense of House resolution passed unanimously in Parliament in August 2011. Further, in the context of pending amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, which seek to criminalise all bribe-giving, the absence of an effective GR mechanism will mean that even those people who are forced to pay a bribe to access their legitimate entitlements, could face up to 7 years in prison. The NCPRI demanded that the government immediately operationalise the WBP Act without the proposed regressive amendments and re-introduce the GR legislation. Rather than bringing contentious amendments to dilute the Lokpal law, the government should move a single line amendment allowing for the leader of the single largest opposition party to be a member of the selection panel, so that the Lokpal law could be operationalised urgently. Detailed notes on the WBP Act, Lokpal Act, GR bill and the statements of senior BJP leaders on the floow of the House regarding the WBP and GR bills are attached. For further information, contact 9810273984, [email protected]