A day after the Economic Survey called for the Right to Information Act, 2005, to be re-examined, the Congress on Friday hit out at the government, alleging it was planning to “murder” the UPA-era law after having “systematically weakened” it since coming to power in 2014.
The Survey acknowledged the law as a powerful democratic reform and a tool for accountability and against corruption, but added it was never intended “as a tool for idle curiosity” and that it risks becoming an “end in itself”, where disclosures are celebrated regardless of contribution to better governance.
While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge targeted the government, some senior ministers in the UPA-2 government (2009-2014) had argued in public that the RTI Act was being “misused”, which affected institutional efficacy and efficiency. Several corruption scandals that buffeted the government, finally leading to it losing power, emerged through RTI disclosures.
In 2011, then Law Minister Salman Khurshid and Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily flagged the issue in the wake of a controversy over a Finance Ministry note on Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s stance on the 2G spectrum allocation. The note became public through RTI.
Demanding a re-look at the RTI Act, Khurshid said its misuse was affecting institutional efficacy and efficiency, with even the bureaucracy becoming reluctant to record its opinion. He called for a balance to be maintained between transparency and accountability and institutional efficiency.
“There is a confidential communication between a minister and the Prime Minister and then there are further consultations before we bring something to the cabinet; If everything that I as a minister write to the Prime Minister comes out, then what is the point of writing to the PM confidentially? The same goes for the communication between the governor and chief minister. …These issues have to be dispassionately examined as to at what stage such papers can be given. You cannot claim papers under the RTI which are part of internal communications ahead of a cabinet decision until such time that a decision is finally taken,” Khurshid told The Indian Express.
“There is a bona fide question about institutional efficacy and efficiency. Due to the use of the RTI in a wrongful way, a lot of impediments are being felt. Governors have expressed it; courts have expressed it. Undue inconvenience is caused by misuse of the RTI Act,” Khurshid said in the 2011 interview.
Moily’s stand
Moily, too, had adopted a similar position a few days earlier, even while asserting that the Congress remained committed to transparency and accountability. Arguing that RTI disclosures were “transgressing into government functioning,” Moily noted that while the party was committed to transparency, RTI cannot scuttle the independence of individuals and ministers expressing a difference of opinion.
Asked about the Economic Survey’s observations and Kharge’s response, Moily told The Indian Express, “RTI is an important instrument in the hands of the citizens. To safeguard information and other things, it is a matter of administration. For that, you need not dilute the RTI.”
About the concerns he had raised over a decade ago, the veteran Congress leader said, “Of course, to safeguard it, you need to adopt some governance process. Scrapping the RTI is not the answer. In fact, the Act itself needs to be strengthened. We should empower the citizens, not the officers. The privacy clause, which was
introduced by the Britishers, should not be continued. Alternative provisions will have to be made to safeguard the secrecy of government files or government matters.”
Moily said it was not the “absolute right” of the government to withhold file notings and draft reports. “But what could be disclosed and what cannot be disclosed is a matter of governance. It has to be reviewed objectively.”
Kharge’s objections
Targeting the government over the Economic Survey’s suggestion that the RTI Act be re-examined, Kharge posted on X, “It also suggests a possible ‘Ministerial veto’ to withhold information and wants to explore the possibility of shielding public service records, transfers and staff reports of bureaucrats from public scrutiny. The Modi Government has systematically weakened the RTI Act.”
The Congress president said more than 26,000 cases were pending as of 2025. In 2019, he said, the government “hacked away” at the RTI Act, seizing control of Information Commissioners’ tenure and pay, thereby converting independent watchdogs into submissive functionaries.
The Economic Survey has called for “re-examination” of the Right to Information Act.
It also suggests a possible “Ministerial veto” to withhold information and wants to explore the possibility of shielding public service records, transfers and staff reports of bureaucrats from… pic.twitter.com/njBRyDzroy
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) January 30, 2026
“Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 gutted the RTI’s public interest clause, weaponising privacy to shield corruption and stonewall scrutiny. Until last month (December 2025), the Central Information Commission had been functioning without a Chief Information Commissioner — the seventh time in 11 years this key post was deliberately kept vacant. Since 2014, over 100 RTI activists have been murdered, unleashing a climate of terror that punishes truth-seekers and extinguishes dissent. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014 passed by the Congress-UPA has not been implemented by the BJP, till date. After killing MGNREGA, is it RTI’s turn to get murdered,” Kharge said.
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
