Modi govt killing RTI Act bit by bit: Congress president Kharge

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accuses the government of undermining the Right to Information Act, framing recent digital privacy reforms as an authoritarian attack on democracy and transparency. This political conflict highlights critical tensions between new data protection frameworks and existing open government mandates. The recently passed legislation amends the RTI Act by removing exemptions that previously allowed the disclosure of personal information when deemed in the public interest. By eliminating these caveats, the law restricts access to sensitive official data, fundamentally altering how citizens and researchers can scrutinize government actions. This shift is highly relevant to open data advocates as it demonstrates how privacy laws can inadvertently or intentionally obstruct information transparency. The erosion of public interest exemptions threatens the availability of critical government records, impacting efforts to maintain accountable, open, and accessible public sector data ecosystems.

Source: news.webindia123.com
Published on 2023-08-25