PM’s wife files an RTI application: Jashodaben, wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, kicked up a storm by filing an RTI application seeking information about her security protocol and on whose order she was being provided armed guards.
She filed the application before the Mehsana Superintendent of Police, complaining that her guards have refused to share with her the official order directing them to protect her.
Her application seeks information about “all protocol and facilities, especially security details that is the right of a prime minister’s wife”.
Apart from the fact that the guards do not carry any official orders with them, there are two other points which the RTI application reveals that Jashodaben is miffed about:
While she travels by public transport, her guards tail her in air-conditioned cars.
The guards demand to be treated like family’s guests. Jashodaben has also sought to know what other privileges she is entitled to as the wife of the Prime Minister of India. “I am the wife of the Prime Minister of India and have been extended security as per protocol. What other service can be extended to me under the protocol? Please give me detailed description of the protocol,” her application reads.
Information on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose:
The Prime Minister’s Office in a recent RTI reply accepted that there were 41 files related to Bose, of which two had been declassified, but refused to disclose them, taking a position similar to that of the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.
“Disclosure of documents contained in these files would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries. As such, these files are exempted from disclosure u/s. 8(1) (a) read with Section 8(2) of the Right to Information Act,” the PMO said in this reply to RTI activist Subhash Agrawal.
Vasectomy & Tubectomy:
Tubectomy is a permanent birth control surgical procedure. Fallopian tubes are blocked to prevent fertilised eggs from reaching the uterus and embedding there; it also prevents sperms from reaching the egg.
Vasectomy is a minimal invasive procedure from permanent birth control. The two tubes that carry sperms from testicles to urinary tract are surgically severed and sealed. Post surgery, sperms cannot pass through to fertilise a woman’s egg.
The RTI data accessed by activist Chetan Kothari bares the trend of teenage girls going for Tubectomy till five years ago. In 2002-03, 119 girls aged 15 to 19 underwent the procedure, with the instances dipping to 10 or 15 a year. In 2007, the minimum age for Tubectomy was raised to 22 years. A near double incentive for those opting for vasectomy has also failed to lure many men. The number temporarily rose to 4,661 in 2008-09 and 3,927 between 2008 and 2010, only to dip drives dwindled. Since then, it has been a steady downfall with Tubectomy again dominating family planning centers.
Black Money:
The government has denied disclosure of information under RTI on how many requests it has made to other countries with which India has Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA ) or a Tax Information Exchange Agreement, citing national interest and confidentiality.
CHRI’s Venkatesh Nayak had sought information on the subject from 2011 to October 2014.
However, in response to RTIs, the finance ministry said that it could not disclose the information citing section 8(1) (a) and 8(1) (f) of the Act.
The sections forbid disclosure if the information is against national interest or if the information has been given b a foreign government on condition of confidentiality.
Pointing out this anomaly, Nayak said the bar in the confidentiality clause in DTAAs was only about person-specific information and not for numbers, adding that the government had already made this information public in an international forum.
But when a citizen asks for the number of requests it has made to other countries and shows what is the public interest in disclosing such information, they invoke section 8(1)(a) and (f). So just like in the Ram Jethmalani case, the government thinks it is more loyally bound to foreign countries under its DTAA s and not to even the court or its own citizens in terms of transparency. These DTAA s are not ratified or even placed before Parliament,” Nayak said. Recently the SC ordered the government to hand over the names of accountholders who have stashed black money abroad.
