CIC Asks PM, Home Minister To Consider Declassifying Files On Shastri’s Death, Dedicates Order To Late Journo Kuldip Nayar [Read Order]

Prof Acharyulu says labelling “top-secret” to make a doc top-secret not apt, cites Nambi Narayanan caseObserving that when Pentagon papers in the US and Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) papers in India could be declassified why not Shastri papers also, the Central Information Commission has directed that the “so-called” classified papers on the death of India’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri be placed before the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to take a call on declassifying them considering the long-standing demand of his family and citizens to know the mystery behind his death.“CPIOs of PMO, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs to place all those so-called ‘classified papers’ before the Honourable Prime Minister and the Home Minister, who are recommended to consider the fundamental right to know and demand of the people, family members of Lal Bahadur Shastri and opinion of legendary senior journalists like late Kuldip Nayar, to declassify either through an expert Committee or by any other process to get the mystery probed and resolved. Even if they can prove that Shastri died by heart attack, that can answer the doubts of the people,” said CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu.The CIC said, “All the CPIOs and seniors of PMO, MEA and MHA have a duty to resolve this mystery and to provide to complete answer these frequent RTI requests to pay due respect to the most honest former Prime Minister of India, and the people who admire him.”The CIC referred extensively to the interviews and opinions of veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar who breathed his last on August 23, 2018. Nayar, then working for news agency the United News of India, had travelled to Tashkent with Shastri and broken the news of his death and later went on to raise the question if the “beloved leader” was poisoned.That is not all.Prof Acharyulu had even visited Nayar’s residence in May 2018, and discussed the issue with him. Prof Acharyulu noted that Nayar told him he was shocked at the sudden death of Shastri and doubts over his sudden death were not baseless and require to be probed.Why, how and till when Shastri’s file to remain classified?“People’s right to know the ‘truth’ behind the death of Shastri cannot be brushed aside on the ground of Section 8(1)(a) en bloc. In view of the startling incidents that followed the mysterious death, such as killing of his personal doctor and assistant in two separate ‘accidents’, disappearance of records of Rajya Sabha Committee’s probe, and various significant points raised by journalists Kuldip Nayar, Anuj Dhar, Soutik Biswas, Advocate Anoop Bose, Shastri’s wife Mrs Lalitha, other family members, the Commission is of opinion that the Union Government has a duty to explain the nation why and how Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent.“The Government representatives have not come up with any justification for continuing these documents ‘secret’ for unlimited period of time. They did not produce documents earlier claimed as ‘classified’ before the Commission, in spite of specific direction, to facilitate the Commission considering the claim of classification in terms of S 8(1)(a) of RTI Act and OSA,” noted Prof Acharyulu.The CIC was hearing the complaint of one Navdeep Gupta who had sought to know if dead body of the late Prime Minister was brought to India or was he cremated there in Russia? And in case his body was brought to India, he sought a certified copy of postmortem conducted on his body.The CIC noted that on 24.05.2018, the Under Secretary, Rajya Sabha, Secretariat in his note-sheet stated that “no record related to Raj Narain Commission of Inquiry is available with this Section” and demarcated it to the RTI cell.The Director of RTI Cell explained that neither the report of Raj Narain Inquiry Commission nor the date of laying of the report on the Table of the Rajya Sabha is available with them. Even the Lok Sabha Secretariat said the requisite information was not available with them.The National Archives of India also had no details and wondered why the MHA had sent the query to them.Except a medical report, nothing was disclosed, and “mystery is being allowed to persist”, noted the CIC.In view of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), Manual of Departmental Security Instructions (MoDSI), the CIC listed questions which, he said, needed to be answered by the ministries concerned of the Government of India in response to RTI of the appellant, family members of Shastri and the people.The questions are: As records are not being classified under the OSA, and it is being done by the individual ministry, which ministry has classified the documents of Shastri? Whether Shastri’s death-related papers are classified as ‘top secret’, ‘secret’ or ‘confidential’, on what basis? Which part of 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act is invoked to deny and what is the justification for such invocation? What is the normal period for such classification? Whether any norms are guidelines prescribed? If yes, same...

CIC Asks PM, Home Minister To Consider Declassifying Files On Shastri’s Death, Dedicates Order To Late Journo Kuldip Nayar [Read Order]

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