Home ministry turns down RTI query on recent Chinese incursion
30 May, 2013An application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get information the total Indian Territory taken over by the Chinese army through its recent incursion in Ladakh region of India.
The deputy secretary in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in the reply to the application, has refused to give the demanded information stating that the requested information was exempt under Section 8(1)(a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; of the RTI Act.
According to the said exemption clause, any information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence, is not mandated to be disclosed under RTI.
The border dispute with China lead to the war in 1962 following which a large part of territory was lost by India. The border has not been silent with repeated reports of Chinese incursions along the border. Recently, the media had highlighted Chinese incursions just before the visit of the Chinese leader to India. The applicant, Deepak Sharma, has alleged that the denial was an attempt to hide the facts about the Chinese incursion and has said that he would approach the central information commission regarding this.