On July 25, Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson Saket Gokhale published a misleading tweet thread claiming that the Central Government does not consult the President on matters related to the armed forces. In his tweet, he shared an RTI and its reply sent by the President of India’s office and claimed that “the President is not consulted by the Central Government on matters related to the armed forces”. He further claimed it was an insult to the President of India.
The misleading claims by Saket Gokhale
On June 21, Gokhale sent an RTI to the Undersecretary (RTI) in the President of India’s office and sought information on Agnipath Scheme. He asked the office if the President was consulted by the Union Government of India or the Council of Ministers over the recently-launched Agnipath Scheme for the recruitment in the Armed Forces of India. He further asked for copies of all files received and sent by the President of India and the President’s Secretariat to the Union Govt of India on the matter.
While sharing the reply, Gokhale claimed that the Modi government denied information that its disclosure would affect the sovereignty and integrity of India. According to Gokhale, the reasoning was bizarre. He further continued to claim that the Modi government does not consult the President of India on matters related to the Armed Forces and hides the information.
The reply nowhere mentions what Gokhale claimed
By looking at the reply he received, it looks like the President’s office had forwarded his RTI application to the Department of Military Affairs that rejected it. The application was rejected under Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act, which states, “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.”
What Saket Gokhale was seeking as a reply to his RTI were confidential documents regarding the recruitment in the Armed Forces. It was obvious that such information would not be provided by the defence department as it may go into the wrong hands. Interestingly, nowhere in the reply did the Department of Military Affairs say that the President of India was not consulted about the new recruitment scheme, but Gokhale somehow came to the conclusion that if the information was not provided, and just assumed that the president was not consulted.
