11 Jun Should retired officials be barred from disclosing information?(The Hindu, GS-2, Governance)
Context:- Recently the central government said that it prohibited retired officials of security and intelligence organisations from publishing anything about their work or organisation (Which may come under official security act) without prior clearance from the head of the organisation.
- Official Secrets Act 1923:- which prohibits officials to publish, tell any one the information which he gets in the official capacity.
Why there is an issue over disclosing the information:-
- RTI which provides the people right to information.
- Government transparency is must in order of good governance
- Recent amendment in the whistleblower act also prohibits much information to be disclosed.
- There is no convention which allows the classified files to be declassified after some time as in the case of the USA. for example, declassify the Justice Mukherjee report on Subhas Chandra Bose and send it to the National Archives.
- A stable security policy is always hard to achieve since the boundaries of official secrecy cannot be clearly articulated.
Way forward:-
- People must know what their representatives are doing when they become executive.
- A convention to be established that after some period of time files must be declassified.
- People’s right to know must be secured.
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Plutus IAS Current Affair Team Member
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