Dear Friends,

The RTI community has been very vigilant and has managed to prevent any amendment of the RTI Act, despite attempts from as early as 2006, a year after its passage in Parliament. Since the RTI act came into effect it has proved to be a powerful means to fight corruption and the arbitrary use of power. The vigilance and protest by the RTI community kept the establishment from proceeding with the dormant and explicit desire to curtail transparency and accountability entitlements. We are now informed that the Government is thinking of moving amendments to the RTI Act in the coming session of Parliament, to negate the CIC order declaring that political parties are public authorities under the RTI Act. It is likely that these amendments will seek to not only address this issue but to curtail various other entitlements that have now established the ability of the RTI to fight corruption and the arbitrary use of power by the establishment.

We appeal to you for your help and support. We are petitioning the PM, and we request your endorsement. We feel your support, along with that of others, will represent an important consensus of opinion in the public domain against amendments to the RTI Act.

The petition to the PM may also please be forwarded to a range of people to endorse. This needs to be widely publicized and support needs to be drawn from a cross section of users across sectors, to rapidly build public opinion before the commencement of the Monsoon session of Parliament.

Please sign the below petition or email your endorsement to ncpri.india@gmail.com

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Bharat Dogra, Shekhar Singh, Shailesh Gandhi, Harsh Mander, Aruna Roy