New Work: Before the polls, PM Modi made a big annoucement--he had been silently working on a development roadmap and had consulted more than 15 lakh people. I decided to file RTIs with the Prime Minister's Office to know more about these consultations. After multiple attempts, here is what... I found: 🚨show more

This statement was circulated widely--tweets went viral, news reported it and it was even a part of a PIB Press Release. PM Modi, then, repeatedly the claim in April. "I contacted all the universities, I had contacted different NGOs."

He even spelt out what had happened after these suggestions had come in: He had used AI, classified it subject-wise. He even made a dedicated team of officers. All this made me curious, and I asked the PMO to tell me the details, the dates of these meetings.

He made similar claims of a roadmap being ready in multiple interviews and election rallies. In some he claimed the roadmap was for 25 years, in one he said his vision extended to the next 1000 years.

The PMO, however, dismissed my RTI as an "open-ended, roving inquiry". No word on whether these meetings were held or not. I appealed against it, to which they said these details don't fall under the definition of 'information' in the RTI Act. But it gets more interesting. It added that it could only provide information "as is available and existing in its records." So, I filed another RTI, asking them to clarify if these meetings were not held. Yet, again, I was stone-walled. The PMO said this was not 'information' that could be provided.

Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi called these replies 'scandalous.' "f the Prime Minister is holding consultative meetings, then there has to be a record of such meetings, there will be minutes of these meetings, the details of the participants, among other details,” @shaileshgan.

Q is, shouldn't the PMO be keeping records of such crucial consultations the Prime Minister is making, towards a development roadmap? The full piece @thewire_in: @svaradarajan @AjoyAshirwad

Whenever Modi says 15 Lakh... Just understand that it's a Jumla 🙌

Looks like 15 Lakh is Modi's favourite number

Consultation could be one sided, through radio 😀😀

Thanks to ManMohan Singh for bringing RTI act.