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The Right To Information — A Global Perspective PROF. K. M. Shrivastava is a senior professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and has authored several books related to the media. And now comes the latest book from him — The Right To Information — A Global Perspective.
As expected the book is laced with details and backgrounders related to the RTI as it exists in our country and in other countries of the world. But what could be termed disappointing is that there’s little focus on the rather limited jurisdiction / scope of the RTI as the fact that one can’t question and ask about certain sensitive issues and areas can not be overlooked. Due to this fact the RTI ‘s penetration can be called rather incomplete and it is riddled with loopholes. To the why Shrivastava says "total transparency does not exist anywhere in the world. In many developed countries, besides national security, data protection and privacy laws put restrictions on the freedom of information. The scope of RTI is limited to the extent provided by Section 8. Its interpretation is subject to review by Information Commissioners. This is good enough legally." Elaborating still further he says, "Weakness is regarding spreading awareness to the masses. As a law ours is the best. A recent amendment in the law in US has brought it closer to ours. But the problem is in its implementation. It is time for our NGOs and commissioners to educate people about the RTI. This will improve the situation. There is need for training and awareness within the government departments as well. We need better data protection and privacy provisions as well to protect honest citizens." In fact, even if awareness about the RTI is spread, it is difficult to bring down the frustation levels. Let’s not overlook the fact that an average Indian does not have the means to fight it out in the midst of adverse circumstances. It is one thing to see the theoretical aspects, but altogether different to stand armed with "information" and find the going tough. In fact, it might sound ironical that even in a big democracy like ours there had to be a struggle, a fight to ensure that the RTI does see the light of the day but, then, ours does not seem to be an exceptional case. In fact, right at the very introduction to this volume Shrivastava does hint at this "There is hardly any country in the world where there is an ideal situation regarding the right to information, though difficulties and constraints vary." While talking about the rather late introduction of this Act in our country he writes —"In all countries, including the US, there has been resistance to this from those who run the country. India has been following the British tradition of official secrecy. `85It began in 1843 when the Central Government issued a notification prohibiting Civil Servants from giving outsiders any information in their possession ‘without the previous consent of the Government to which alone they belong’. In Britain the Freedom of Information Act became operational in 2005. We were not far behind. In fact, the states of Goa and Tamil Nadu had their RTI Acts in place in 1997. The national Freedom of Information Bill 2000 was finally introduced in Parliament in 2002. It was passed in December 2002 and received Presidential accent on January 6, 2003, as the Freedom of Information Act 2002 (N0.5 of 2003). Unfortunately, a date for the Act coming into force was never notified and therefore it never actually came into operation. When UPA came to power, its chairperson Sonia Gandhi took personal interest in this issue and more progressive the RTI Act provided for automatic implementation within 120 days without the need of separate notification. Thus the Act formally came into force on October 12, 2005." Yes, it came into force and that too amidst much media hype and high expectations. But as mentioned earlier, its jurisdiction seems limited and that too in the ‘troubled’ areas of our country like the north-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. And then there are the so called sensitive areas where you and I cannot penetrate with even our simple whys.
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With an ongoing focus on
the RTI this book is timely. And though there’s debate and
discussion whether the RTI will actually move beyond those rigid
parameters, Shrivastava is optimistic that with RTI there would be
transparency in the very functioning of the government, "In my
opinion some level of transparency already existed but through members
of Parliament who could ask questions on government functioning. Now
with the RTI Act, it has been extended to the citizen`85In case of RTI
time limit has been prescribed in the Act and provision of fine is
also there."