A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the
Central Information
Commission, accusing it of concealing information on Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's education qualifications, the CIC has ordered the
Prime Minister's Office to submit details of his degrees.
Without wasting any time to claim credit for having created an
impact, Kejriwal tweeted out the CIC order.
A cursory reading of the
order shows how cleverly Kejriwal used an RTI query -
seeking to know how he was allowed to change his address during
the 2014 Assembly poll nominations - to seek details about the Prime
Minister's educational qualifications.
Here's what the original RTI was all about:
In March 2016, Neeraj Saxena filed an RTI with the Chief
Electoral Officer of Delhi.
The RTI questioned as to why Kejriwal had submitted Form 8A
(ID-467402) - dated 17 November, 2014 - to transpose his name at 514 VBP
House, Rafi Marg, New Delhi, only to withdraw it and file another Form 8A
(ID467401) - dated 8 January, 2015 - to change the address to BK Dutt
Colony, New Delhi - stating that he has been residing at the address for
five months.
The CIC questioned as to why Arvind Kejriwal should not be
declared a public authority as he is an MLA.
During the hearing of this case, Kejriwal said that he was ready
to put all his details in
the public domain. He also demanded to know why the apex
information body did not apply the same rule to get information on Modi's
educational qualifications - which have been a matter of public interest
for a long time.
In a letter to the CIC, Kejriwal wrote:
"I have no objections to my record being made
public. But I have learnt that you have blocked information on
Narendra Modi's degree.
The entire country wants to know the truth. Despite that you
refused to release details of his degree. Why did you do this? It is
wrong".
While contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi had
declared that he held a
Bachelors of Arts degree from the Delhi University (1978)and a
Masters degree from the
Gujarat University (1983). Previous attempts at getting
information on the Prime Minister's degrees from Delhi University have
failed.
The CIC order that Kejriwal shared sheds light on why the
University failed to make
Modi's documents public. The order states:
"In Hans Raj Jain v. Delhi University, CIC/SA//2014/001424,
Mr. Hans Raj filed a
complaint (not second appeal) against Delhi University for not
furnishing the information sought, within time. In that complaint case the
CPIO of Delhi University explained that the admission details are
generally available based on the roll no. of candidates.
The information sought is too general as the complainant wanted
to know details
of all candidates bearing name starting with letters M(Modi) and
N(Narendra).
The CPIO represented that it will be very difficult to search
with the starting letters of the names. Even with the full name Narendra,
it may not be possible to secure the details especially when there no
mention of specific roll number along with the yearnumber in which degree
was allotted."
In the order, the CIC also makes it clear that it was not
imperative for the Prime Minister to reveal details of his educational
qualification. The order states:
"Just because the public is interested in it, it does not
mean that it is in public interest.
There is no educational qualification prescribed for contesting
any electoral position
under law. The election to Lok sabha or Prime Ministership
cannot be questioned on
the point of educational qualification."
Despite this contention, the CIC goes on to order the Prime
Minister's Office to furnish relevant documents because:
"When a citizen holding the position of Chief Ministership
wants to know the degree
related information of the Prime Minister, it will be proper to
disclose. Hence, the
Commission requires the PMO to provide specific number and year
of the degree and
PG degree to the Delhi University and the Gujrat University
offices."
Somi brings with her the diverse experience of working in a hard
news environment with ample exposure to long-form journalism to Catch.
She has worked with Yahoo! News, India Legal and Newslaundry.
As the Assistant Edit...
No comments:
Post a Comment