-The Economic Times If India is now debating opening the books and operations of political parties to the public, it's because of these six people who pulled strategic levers and applied relentless pressure. Soma Banerjee traces a four-year effort that converted intent to action Balwant Singh Khera, a politician from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, is not a name that will strike a chord in mainstream politics or social discourse today. It might in...
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Funding of parties can come under RTI Act: Arun Jaitley -Mohua Chatterjee & Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: BJP leader and cricket administrator Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling bringing political parties within the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act was per se not wrong as long as it applied to their funding. However, he was quick to introduce caveats. "The CIC logic behind applying RTI Act to political parties is that they are given land at concessional...
More »RTI Act: Congress leads parties' charge against transparency
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Unease among political parties over being brought under the purview of the RTI Act became evident on Tuesday with Congress strongly opposed the Central Information Commission (CIC) order and BJP also expressing its reservations. Barring CPI, no political party welcomed the decision. CPM said it cannot accept the CIC order as it felt opponents can use the ruling to "undermine" a political party. Janata Dal (U)...
More »Govt forms GoM to insulate CBI from external influence- Sahil Makkar
-Live Mint The GoM findings, draft will be submitted to the Supreme Court before 10 July Taking a cue from last week's adverse comments by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to draft a law that will eventually seek to insulate the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from political influence. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, law minister Kapil Sibal and minister of...
More »Mani Shankar Aiyar, diplomat-turned-politician interviewed by Nidhi Sharma
-The Economic Times My target for fulfilling Rajiv's vision has always been 2018. We can get there in less than 5 years if govt acts on our recommendations, says diplomat-turned-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar. You have been passionately talking about Panchayati Raj. But your party doesn't seem to share the same passion lately... Mani Shankar Aiyar: I don't agree with you here. The commitment of the party to Panchayati Raj and devolution of...
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