Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s reservations about making the Cabinet decisions public is an ‘untenable’ position, Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Kanam Rajendran has reiterated.
Accusing the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, in which his party is the second largest constituent, of following “the same parochial stance as the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government” on making Cabinet decisions available under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, Mr. Rajendran attributed the stance to “a position taken by the Chief Minister without due consultations”.
A legal right
Talking to The Hindu on Thursday, Mr. Rajendran said the Left parties were of the view that the legal right granted to the public to have access to government policies and decisions should not be curtailed.
National-level stance
“That’s the stance taken by the Left at the national level – which was recently upheld by the CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. The LDF government in the State is, therefore, duty bound to endorse the RTI Act, especially because the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is trying everything possible to dilute it.”
On the Opposition’s charge that the government was inert thanks to wrangling between top officials and the Vigilance director, he said steps should be taken to institute a Vigilance Commission as promised in the manifesto.
Law on admissions
He said there should be a law to govern admissions and the function of self-financing institutions, most of which had become a law unto themselves.
The RTI Act was unambiguous about what should be withheld and what should be made known.
“If the Cabinet has arrived at a decision, it becomes a public document and should be in the public domain,” he said, pointing to a Delhi High Court ruling of 2009 which was categorical about making the decisions available in a time-bound manner.
