"Because there is RTI, some people are saying unless you come through RTI, we will not give you information. Latest example is M S Gill talking in Parliament that come through RTI route. How can you say that? It is absolutely becoming unaccountable. You should say that my system is such that you don't need RTI to get information," he told PTI.
Tiwari said he would start a dialogue with all the "government instrumentalities" to identify documents and records which cannot be made public, so that all remaining records could be made available to public without any use of the transparency law.
"My proposal to government is that they create a negative list of documents which cannot be disclosed. The rest of the files should be open which can be accessed by citizens without the use of RTI. RTI works best when it is used the least," Tiwari said.
He said in such a regime, the use of RTI Act would be limited to documents and records which have not been brought in the open category thus making the use of transparency law even more effective.
Speaking on the success of transparency regime in the country, Tiwari said mere dependence on the RTI Act will not promote openness in the system which is trained to have an "intuitive reflex to secrecy".
"Everyone in government is scared about what will happen if we become transparent," he said. He said while the present system of getting information through RTI should continue, at the same time there should be a dialogue with all the "government instrumentalities about an institutional adherence to transparency."
64-year old Tiwari, who succeeded Wajahat Habibullah, said while opening documents for public scrutiny, "one size fits all" will not work. The class of documents which can be disclosed in one organisation can be confidential for another organisation.
On the issue of proposed changes in the RTI Act which are being contemplated by the government, he said, "Civil society does not have arguments for not amending the Act but those who want to amend the act also do not have the arguments for urgency of bringing the changes. Both are working with insufficient information."
He said there were some issues like succession of the CIC and disclosure of documents which have potential to impede the investigations which need to be addressed through changes.
Tiwari, a political science scholar and a former bureaucrat, said one of his priorities is to streamline the Registry of the Central Information Commission which has come under criticism for delays in transferring appeals to offices of the information commissioners concerned.