SANJU VERMA
the Act now definitely needs a second revolution to revive the old fervour with which the RTI was first initiated.
With the RTI (Right to
Information) Act entering into 10 years of its existence in 2015, it is an
appropriate time to analyse its the efficacy and performance on the ground and
make a judgment. As the Act came into being following a long and sustained
civil society activism, it began very well impacting people’s life very
positively.
It heralded a
new era of transparency and accountability in the country’s public life,
specially matters pertaining to the governments at all levels- Centre, states
and local self-government institutions. A number of significant disclosures
were forced by the RTI, including the information regarding 2-G spectrum
allocations and Commonwealth Games and so on.
Interestingly,
the benefits of Act spread like fire in the jungle among the educated and
otherwise empowered city dwellers. Most importantly, it led to the demand for
several other equally important rights like the right to employment guarantee,
the right to education and the right to food security. The RTI has had the
effect of slackening the tight hold of the government and its officials on both
information and instrumentalities of the state.
The decade
following 2005 witnessed the slow withering away of the Central government and
the RTI surely played a role in that unravelling — by increasing irreverence,
scrutiny and through the critiquing of its authority among the general public.
However, of
late, one witnesses a waning of fervour even though the number of RTI
applications has been growing. Obviously, from the beginning, civil society
activists and the media have been more enthusiastic about the RTI than civil
servants, who have traditionally used information as the source of their power
and mystique. The civil service’s indifference and hostility towards the RTI
has not diminished over the years; if at all, it has only increased although
many government servants, no doubt mostly disgruntled, have also been most
successful users of RTI, largely seeking information to fix their own cases and
fix those they did not like. Ordinary citizens mostly seek personal information
regarding various services otherwise denied to them by the system, be it a
passport or a ration card or various commonly required certificates.
Since disclosure
of such information poses little threat to the system, the public authorities
share such information relatively easily. It is the contentious or potentially
controversial information that the public authorities have been very wary of
disclosing. Thus, as far as personal information goes or information of an
innocuous kind, the RTI has been a success. But as a tool to inculcate the
value of transparency, the RTI has neither sunk deep into the government nor
among most of the citizenry.
Meanwhile,
almost 300 cases of murder, assault and harassment relating to information
activism have been recorded in the ten years since the RTI Act came into force.
Maharashtra has emerged as the most dangerous
state for RTI activists in the country.
While there is
no official data on RTI-related crime, figures compiled by the Delhi-based
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative found 230 cases of assault and harassment,
49 murders, and four suicides, over the past ten years.
CHRI data found
that Maharashtra has double the number of cases (murders, attacks, harassment)
than Gujarat, which comes in second followed by Uttar Pradesh, Delhi
Maharashtra also
has the highest number of murders followed by Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar , Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
CHRI Data:
States with
highest number of RTI-Related Murders from October (2005-2015)
Uttar Pradesh 6
Karnataka 4
Andhra Pradesh 3
Thus the Act now
definitely needs a second revolution to revive the old fervour with which the
RTI was first initiated. As far as laws go, the RTI Act has been the best thing
to happen after the Constitution of India; we must make it work.
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