The ministry of external affairs has refused to provide details sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on correspondence with the US on importing oil from Russia.

The MEA’s denial came on an RTI query from Venkatesh Nayak, the director of the advocacy group Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and an information activist, seeking documents related to all official records containing communications received from every functionary of the Joe Biden administration that are indicative of its active encouragement of India importing Russian oil to strengthen global energy market stability.

The request for the documents comes against the backdrop of external affairs minister S. Jaishankar saying last month in Moscow that the US under Biden had asked India to do “everything to stabilise” the global energy market, “including buying oil from Russia”.

Jaishankar’s statement was in response to the Donald Trump administration’s threat to impose tariffs as a penalty for India buying Russian oil and weapons, which the current US government sees as feeding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machinery in Ukraine.

The Trump administration has cited such purchases while imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on India’s exports, taking the total levy to a punishing 50 per cent.

The MEA’s official spokesperson had said on August 4 that “India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict. In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy market stability.”

However, Nayak said, the MEA refused to disclose relevant correspondence with the US administration under the RTI Act, 2005.

“Last year in response to another RTI application, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas had pleaded ignorance about the quantum of windfall profit tax collected on account of exporting petroleum products after refining imported Russian oil,” Nayak said.

“The MEA’s admission that India bought Russian oil based on advice received from the Biden administration is a serious matter. It has generated considerable debate within the country and abroad. The 50 per cent tariff imposition has major implications for our economy,” he said.

“Despite the frank public admission by the MEA spokesperson and later on by the external affairs minister about being actively encouraged/ advised by the US to buy Russian oil, the MEA does not want to disclose the correspondence to prove its claim before the citizenry,” Nayak added.

“The MEA, like many other Union ministries, is operating under the pre-RTI philosophy of sharing information on a ‘need to know’ basis with the citizenry instead of the ‘right to know’ doctrine which the RTI seeks to entrench in the government apparatus,” the activist said.

The MEA’s refusal to disclose the correspondence with the US cites Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act, which bars disclosure on issues involving sensitive economic interest.

Section 8(1)(a) deals with “information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign states or lead to incitement of an offence”.

“The CPIO (central public information officer) has not specifically indicated which of these interests are attracted by the RTI queries,” Nayak said, adding that Section 8(1)(a) had been cited mechanically, without due application of mind. “The CPIO did not invoke Section 8(1)(f) of the RTI Act, which exempts the disclosure of information received in confidence from a foreign government. So, the US might not have requested that this correspondence be kept confidential,” he added.

Nayak had also sought legible copies of all official records containing the responses sent by functionaries of the Indian government to every communication relating to the India-Russia oil deal.

On how the MEA had sourced information on US imports of Russian commodities, the CPIO said such details could be found on the website of the International Trade Centre. As for the query seeking access to file notings related to the correspondence with the US, the CPIO said he was not the custodian of the information, Nayak said.