False information is being shared in the name of secret clauses of the Transfer of power act - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 17, 2023
A social media post claims that the ‘transfer of power agreement’ contains some secret clauses, which are supposed to be kept secret till 2024.  The post further claims that adhering to these secret clauses ‘India has been paying 10 billion rupees pension to Queen Elizabeth, since 1947’. Also ‘under the agreement, India is bound to give 30 thousand tons of beef every year to Britain’. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in this post.
Claim: Since 1947, India has been paying 10 billion rupees pension to Queen Elizabeth ; India is bound to give 30 thousand tons of Beef every year to Britain.
Fact: Transfer of power act is available in public domain. Further, there are no such secret clauses in the act, which are allegedly extended till 2024. Moreover, India does not pay any pension to Queen Elizebeth and there is no such provision of exporting beef annually to UK, as claimed. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There are no reports of any secret clauses enshrined in the Transfer of power act, as claimed in the viral post. Hence, there doesn’t exist a question of extending these secret provisions to 2024. Moreover, contrary to the claim made in the viral post, ‘Transfer of power act’ is available in the public domain and can be viewed here and here. Further, let’s look at each claim made in the viral post separately below.
Indian Parliament does not have the right to amend Articles 366, 371, 372, 395 :
Article 245 of the Indian Constitution empowers the Parliament to make and repeal laws, whereas Article 368 details the procedure to be followed with respect to amending the laws. Article 368 delineates the procedure to be followed with respect to repealing/amending the laws.
While Articles 366, 371, 372, and 395 respectively deal with provisions of Scheduled Tribes, Special Provisions given to certain States, continuance in force of existing laws and their adaptation, and the Repealing of the Government of India Act 1935 and Indian Independence Act 1947 respectively.
However, in article 368, there is no mention of restricting the Parliament with respect to repealing/amending these articles, as claimed in the viral post.
India pays 10 billion every year to Queen Elizabeth:
Over the years there is no mention of any such payment to Queen Elizabeth in the budget documents (here & here). Every payment made by the government of India is documented in the budget document. No reference to such a transaction implies that GoI does not make any such payment. Further, we could not find any news reports which endorse this claim.
In fact, contrary to the claim made India has been receiving foreign aid from the UK. According to this 2018 news report, Britain was to donate over 1.17 billion pounds to India as foreign aid in the course of over five years.
India is bound to give 30 thousand tons of Beef every year to Britain :
As per the Export Policy, the export of beef, which includes meat and edible offal of cows, oxen, and calf, is under the prohibited category and not permitted to be exported.
It is the buffalo meat that is exported to other countries from India in the name of beef. According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for the year 2021-22, beef worth 25,000 crores is exported to 66 countries.
However, in the past nine years, it is only for three years there have been beef exports from India to the UK. India exported 0.4 MT, 0.03MT & 29MT of beef to the UK in 2014-15, 2016-17 & 2019-20 respectively. This implies there are no consistent exports of beef from India to the UK, contrary to the claim made in the viral post.
Further, we could not find any reports that state that India should export beef to the UK annually, abiding by any secret clauses, as claimed.
To sum it up, false information is being shared in the name of secret clauses of the transfer of power act.