Kiran Reddy wins battle against Governor, RTI the casualty

Kiran Kumar Reddy has re-defined RTI. In his dictionary, ‘Right to Information’ means right to have information commissioners of his choice. And for once, he has managed to get the better of Governor ESL Narasimhan. Of course, aided by the Constitution of India. Last February, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister sent a list of eight names for the posts of Information commissioners to the Governor. Narasimhan gave his nod to four of them but returned the rest to the cabinet for reconsideration. His objection was that the four had a political background. Narasimhan was right to point this out, since a Supreme court order states that those who were in active politics should not be appointed as Information Commissioners. But now, since the Governor is bound to okay the names once the file is sent to him for the second time, Reddy has had his way. In fact, the profile of all the eight information commissioners makes for some interesting reading. The ‘political’ commissioners are Imtiaz Ahmed, Vijaya Nirmala, Tantia Kumari and V Venkateswarulu. Imtiaz Ahmed contested the 2009 Assembly elections as a Telugu Desam candidate against Kiran Kumar Reddy. Once he lost, he joined the Congress. Vijaya Nirmala contested the 2009 elections as a candidate of Praja Rajyam - Chiranjeevi’s party that merged with the Congress. Tantia Kumari is the daughter of former deputy CM of Andhra Pradesh, Koneru Ranga Rao while Venkateswarulu has been a Youth Congress leader. [caption id=“attachment_617110” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Is Reddy’s appointment of information commissioners a result of stronger political standing? AFP[/caption] Even among the four whose names were cleared by the Governor, two are former IPS officers and one an ex-IFS officer. The criticism against them is that people who are trained not to divulge information more than what is necessary, would not fit the role of Information commissioners, a job that calls for a willingness to be more open about matters of public importance. In fact, of the nine information commissioners, including the chief information commissioner, four are former bureaucrats, four are politicians and one journalist. None has a track record of civil society activism. What is surprising is that Chandrababu Naidu who is on the selection panel in his capacity as the Leader of Opposition, did not vociferously oppose the names during the meeting. It was only after RTI activists opposed the selections that Naidu sent a dissent note. Since Naidu is on padyatra presently, the CM along with the Deputy chief minister (the third member of the selection panel) decided to send the file to the Governor again, ignoring the TDP chief’s note. On its part, the government defended its move to send the file back to Narasimhan with the same names, claiming it has obtained sworn affidavits from the four `political’ candidates stating that they would not take part in any political activity in future. But surely the government could have selected people who would bring value to the office instead of reducing the office of the information commissioner to a rehabilitation centre. Interestingly, now the four new commissioners are described by the government in a manner that doesn’t highlight their political antecedents. Tantiya Kumari is an advocate while Venkateswarulu is a social worker. Imtiaz Ahmed is described as a former senior civil judge, while Vijaya Nirmala is said to be an educationist. Even as RTI activists plan to move the Supreme Court in protest against the appointments cleared by the Governor, it is clear that the latter isn’t likely to take kindly to this snub. Narasimhan and Kiran share an uncomfortable relationship with the chief minister’s camp not too happy with the Governor’s direct line to the UPA leadership. Kiran’s supporters suspect he does not send very flattering reports about the CM and his administration to Delhi. And the Governor’s decision to return the file and ask Kiran to reconsider the four names, had embarrassed the chief minister. Therefore it is interesting that the CM has chosen to take on the Governor over this issue. The sentiment gaining ground is that Kiran is on a stronger wicket this spring compared to last year. He has been bragging about the success of the Congress in the cooperative society polls, where it managed to win more societies than the TDP and YSR Congress in Seemandhra regions and did better than the TRS in Telangana. His stock has also gone up in the Delhi durbar, where even his critics now see him as someone who managed to ensure the Telangana agitation did not get out of hand as compared to the Rosaiah regime, when the government looked helpless. Kiran’s choice of information commissioners is unlikely to bring him any political dividends but the underlying political message is not lost on anyone. That slowly and surely, the chief minister is asserting himself. He would certainly not mind if this information reaches far and wide.