The Congress party accuses Modi’s government of undermining the RTI Act through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, potentially limiting citizen access to critical government information and reducing transparency.
The Congress party has accused the Narendra Modi government of diluting the Right to Information (RTI) Act through the newly enacted Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the new law could obscure crucial public data, making it harder for citizens to access information on government welfare schemes, financial defaulters, and public sector beneficiaries.
Kharge argued that the balance between the Right to Privacy and Right to Information is being misused by the government to hide important details from the public.
“On the one hand, India has been coming on top in misinformation and disinformation for the past few years, on the other hand, the Modi government is bent on weakening the Right To Information (RTI) Act implemented by the Congress-UPA by bringing the data protection law,”
Kharge posted on X.
He stressed that publicly accessible data—such as ration card lists, MGNREGA beneficiary details, voter lists, and the names of defaulters who flee abroad with government bank loans—should not be hidden under the guise of privacy protection.
Kharge alleged that the Modi government is using data protection as an excuse to weaken RTI, preventing citizens from accessing crucial information.
“Right to Privacy was also taken care of in Congress’ RTI, but it does not mean that the list of beneficiaries or the names of the fraudsters should not be made public,”
he said.
He further vowed,
“Congress party will not allow RTI to weaken, we have raised our voice for it earlier also and will continue to raise our voice from the road to the Parliament.”
The RTI Act, introduced in 2005 under the Congress-led UPA government, was a landmark law that enabled citizens to seek information from public authorities. However, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, has raised concerns that government data could now be shielded from public scrutiny.
The government defends the new law, claiming it is designed to safeguard personal privacy, a right recognized by the Supreme Court in the 2017 Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs Union of India case.
However, the opposition fears that this law will be misused to restrict access to key public information, reducing government transparency and shielding financial offenders from scrutiny. The Congress has pledged to continue its fight against the alleged dilution of RTI to ensure citizens’ right to information is not compromised.
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