Opposing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the INDI Alliance on Thursday said that it will submit a collective petition with over 120 signatures of leaders to the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwani Vaishnav demanding to repeal section 44 (3) from the Act.
Addressing a press conference here Gaurav Gogoi said that the bill was passed in 2023, amidst a no-confidence motion in Parliament related to Manipur.
“Since then we have been studying the implications of the DPDP Act and have come to understand that the recent amendments have a draconian impact on citizens’ rights and press freedom,” he added.
He said that a Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) was set up, and a report was presented. However, the government has a tendency to introduce amendments that fundamentally alter the JPC report’s nature when passing the bill.
He said, “The DPDP act that was passed has a very dangerous section which virtually amends Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act and by removing section 44 (3) from this act, we will be able to save the soul of the RTI act.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the way the government is preparing to siege, it will cause great harm to investigative journalism.
She said that the government is now engaged in completely destroying the RTI Act. “The government has brought in many such provisions under which the public will no longer be able to get information. This is very unfortunate,” he said.
Slamming the centre for the bill, RJD national spokesperson Naval Kishore said that the BJP government wants to run away from the responsibility and it cannot hide its failures and mislead the public through this Act.
“This bill has not been notified yet, so the INDIA alliance will try to make changes in it while maintaining transparency,” he said.
In order to register its protest against the DPDP act, the DMK has also come forward to join hands with the INDIA bloc.
MP Pudukkottai MM Abdulla who was also present during the press conference said, “Whenever there has been a threat to freedom of expression DMK has fought. We join our hands with the INDIA alliance to fight for this.”
CPI-M leader John Brittas also slammed the government and said that this law was rushed when the Opposition was protesting the Manipur crisis. The government intended to bid goodbye to the RTI. Not just RTI, many of the UPA-era laws that transformed governance are being watered down today by the Modi government.
“I’ll just add that the RTI Act was a milestone in the trajectory of India to be a modern democracy—to bring transparency in administration and to empower the citizens and activists. With a single stroke, the Modi government has done away with the RTI. This will have far-reaching implications for the freedom of the press,” he added.
