The left party came down heavily on the government for keeping the central bureau of investigation (CBI) out of RTI purview. “You don’t want to reveal what you are doing. You want to do wrong things in a veil of secrecy,” said A B Bardhan, general secretary of CPI in New Delhi.

He also alleged that there is a sustained attempt by the government to curtail the information provided to public. “Don’t we know how the investigative agency works on and off according to the corporations, groups,” said Bardhan. The corporate houses are heavily involved in corruption and nexus between politicians and industrial houses exists, he commented.

“People are asking for information and not dictating the policies, so why such secrecy,” he questioned the government’s policy. The RTI exemption for the CBI was announced by the central government on June 9.

Bardhan also lashed out against Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s comment on civil society and Team Anna’s locus standi on corruption. “I condemn motivated smear campaign by few people like Digvijaya Singh against civil society. He doesn’t belong to any civil society,” the CPI general secretary added.

But he also trashed Team Anna of representing the entire civil society opinion on corruption. “Who has appointed them? Whom do they represent? Do they represent entire India or entire civil society voices,” the 86 year old leader said without doubting Jan Lok Pal members’ personal integrity.

However, he also doesn’t see the Lokpal as the best tool against corruption. “The claim that the adoption of Lokpal bill will end corruption is like living in fool’s paradise,” the CPI leader said.

The politicians have become thick skinned on corruption, he noted. “In the 1980s, there were tearing protests against the government on Rs. 64 crore scandal involved in the Bofors deal and the government couldn’t win the general election in 1989. But now-a-days thousand crores and lakhs of crores  are swindled and nothing happens,” Bardhan added.