A full bench of the central information commission (CIC) on Monday ruled that national political parties will now come under the Right to Information (RTI) Act’s ambit. This, in effect, means you can ask questions about funding and functioning, among other issues, of the political parties, which have been deemed to be equal to “public authorities”.

“We have no hesitation in concluding that INC/AICC (or Congress party), BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP have been substantially financed by the central government and, therefore, they are held to be public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act,” the CIC said in its 54-page order.

But should the other parties be exempted from the dragnet? At least three of these six parties do not run any state government, whereas many other ‘regional’ parties are in power at the state level and can be deemed more close to being an actual “public authority”. So, should all parties be brought under the RTI Act’s scope?