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The Right to Information Act |
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Don’t sweep RTI under the carpet
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fifty On the record by PROFILE BY
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The Right to Information Act In a span of mere weeks, the Corporate Affairs Minister, the Law Minister and the Prime Minister have all fired salvos at the Right to Information Act. The popularly acclaimed RTI Act 2005, brought in by their own government, has been charged with “transgressing into government functioning”, affecting “institutional efficacy and efficiency”,and even potentially, “discouraging honest, well meaning public servants from giving full expression to their views [and] adversely affect the deliberative processes in the government”.
These considerable negatives are ostensibly traceable to the disclosure of “file notings”, which the government has repeatedly attempted to exempt from the ambit of the RTI Act. This is not the first time that the amendments bogey has reared its head. And file notings are not the only set of grouses that the Government has with the Act. The Act has been said to facilitate blackmail, flood hapless public departments to the point of stymieing work, been misused by civil servants disgruntled at being passed over for promotion, and has, of course, derailed the deliberative process (and therefore governance itself), by rendering officials into paralysis at the mere thought of being pulled up for some file noting. From these repeated waves of complaints, it seems clear that the government is unable to enthusiastically embrace the radical shift it has introduced in the structure of Indian Governance. The negative outcomes on governance are a misrepresentation, because uncompromising transparency at all levels of Government would, amongst other things, be the best way of dealing with corruption, through a set of preventive measures, rather than the painful prescription of retributive justice. Since the RTI was passed, sustained, innovative and varied efforts have been made to dilute the Act – through proposed amendments; proposed rules which went beyond the Act; nodal ministry FAQs; notifications; and departmental circulars. Even without amendments, new forms of secrecy have eroded the RTI. Section 24 of the Act allows blanket protection to Intelligence and Security Agencies. It has been used by the Government to notify agencies that fall outside its definition, including most recently the Central Bureau of Investigation. Sensitive information The nodal Ministry, the Department of Personnel and Training(DoPT), seemed to be finally accepting and adopting its role of fostering better implementation. However, there are mixed messages emanating from there as well. There is reportedly a cautionary note issued that Public Information Officers (PIOs) should not divulge too much information. There is even talk of making the process of providing information more politically sensitive by shifting the level of the PIO to a higher official, who would presumably check with the political bosses before releasing “politically” sensitive information. This time around, the statements of distress with the Act come on the heels of the RTI facilitated disclosure of a finance ministry note on the 2G spectrum scam. The note alleged that the then Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, could have intervened to cancel the telecom spectrum licenses awarded on a first come first serve basis. The note went through the present Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s desk. This has been variously interpreted as a public escalation of a battle rumored between the two most powerful ministers in the UPA-II cabinet. Far from being indicative of a flawed analysis, this is simply an attempt to evade accountability. There is no causal link between the exposure and need for secrecy. Rather it explains the reason for not amending the Act. In fact, during the six year experience of the RTI Act, there has been no evidence of disclosures that have been disastrous, or where basic interests of the people of the country have been compromised. It is time to take dispassionate stock – to examine the alleged negatives, the undoubted positives and determine the way forward. The RTI Act is premised on the fact that in a democracy, the state is accountable to the people. This accountability can be mandated only through pervasive transparency; hence the citizen’s right to information. The constant proposal to deny access to file notings must be seen through this prism. Can a file and its particulars, whether of project or policy, be seen in isolation of the public functionaries who deliberated upon it? Or the reasons for a decision being taken be separated from the decision itself ? It has been said that perceptional distortions due to undue politicisation or trial by media will paralyse or impede administration. Officers will be “reluctant” to “record their opinions” for fear of being targeted later. Moreover difference of opinion by individuals or ministries too will be opportunistically politicised. Transparency of the deliberative process is pivotal to ensure that people in Government do their job. There should be no choice for a serving civil servant, to refuse to put their opinion down on paper, pleading fear of reprisal. Access to information and file notings, will help identify inefficiency. The ordinary citizen will be empowered to establish individual accountability. The only tool we have alternatively is collective accountability (elections), which only peripherally impacts bureaucracy’s action. The arguments of negative fallout of a transparent deliberative process, is typical bureaucratic sophistry. Transparency of file notings will, in fact, strengthen the honest functionary’s hand by demonstrating independence and lack of complicity in corruption. It might even push the less honest ones take a position in consonance with ethics and the rule of law. The Prime Minister is right when he avers that decisions often appear incorrect post facto with access to relevant information. The Indian populace’s forbearance with respect to policy misadventures has lulled the administration to complacency. Information disturbs the complete control over policy and decisions. However, the popular anger we have recently witnessed against blatant corruption, makes transparency and accountability pivotal. In any case, the government and individual functionaries are happy for accountability of implementation at the grass roots but hedge and fight against transparency and accountability at higher levels. The purpose of the democratic process is to serve the interests of the people, and not perpetuate those in power irrespective of performance. Transparency identifies malfeasance, but also the benchmark of competence. Participation of citizens in the process of scrutiny is likely to result in better and more effective policies. More transparency The present speculation and sensationalism on RTI is a red herring to side track from the scams. The scams are clearly an outcome of the lack of transparency and accountability in government functioning. What India needs is more transparency, not less. The RTI has forced and facilitated the beginnings of a change in mindsets. Citizen groups have been demanding action and accountability on a variety of issues. These constant exposures of incompetence and corruption should be used by honest bureaucrats and visionary politicians to initiate the next generation of transparency reforms. These could contribute fundamentally to change governance in creating a culture of Transparency. However, this requires careful and detailed work on aiding preventive measures and expanding platforms for participatory decision-making. A much delayed and urgent area of reform is universal implementation of Section 4 of the RTI Act, which mandates proactive disclosure by public authorities. It also makes it incumbent upon them to “publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public” and “provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons”. The DoPT had set up a task force for improving implementation of proactive disclosure under section 4. Political support from the highest levels is needed before Section 4 can help transform governance at all levels. Citizen groups used the RTI Act to expose the scam and filed complaints. However, mandatory proactive disclosure of “the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes” and the “particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it” (Section 4(1)(b)(xii) and (xiii)) by the Adarsh Society could have thwarted the politician-builder-bureaucrat nexus at the very beginning. Proactive disclosure of information will also reduce the number of complaints, of officers claiming to be bogged down by RTI applications. The greater the information proactively disclosed, the less the need to use the RTI. It is also likely to mitigate the ongoing threat to life and harassment faced by a new generation of activists using the RTI Act. Voluntary and ongoing disclosure of information will make it harder to target individual activists, and in any case render many such attacks ineffectual, because others will be able to use the information, which the attacker is trying to suppress. A recent resolution by the Central Information Commission is a step in this direction, wherein the Commission has resolved that if any RTI activist is attacked, the Commission will order the concerned department to suo moto post the information sought online. The Prime Minister has expressed concern for the people who had been attacked, and promised a whistleblower protection law will be passed soon. This cannot be a substitute for political will. Nothing prevented action being taken in cases where RTI users have lost their lives. Because they are determined, but fairly ordinary people, these cases have not been pursued with the kind of high profile determination that becomes a deterrent for others. The RTI has been owned by the ordinary person. For the protection of the RTI user, and to make the Act a vehicle for the next generation of reform, vision and commitment is needed from the top leadership. This government should be wise enough and have the good sense to use this extraordinary legislation to demonstrate its determination to make governance in India, transparent, accountable and corruption free. Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy (Member, National Advisory Council) and Ruchi Gupta are activists working with The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and the National Campaign for the Peoples Right to Information |
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Don’t sweep RTI under the carpet Prime Minister
Dr. Manmohan Singh, while inaugurating the sixth annual convention of Central Information Commission in New Delhi on October 14, indirectly hinted at the need for amending the RTI Act, mainly in respect of ‘private’ deliberations and notings on files. This was evidently prompted by disclosure of notings, blown out of all proportion, by the Union Finance Ministry on the 2G Spectrum, referring to the then Union Finance Minister (now Home Minister) P. Chidambaram. Unfortunately, the opposition parties believe it to be their birth right to embarrass the government, and media to sensationalise many non-issues. There was nothing unusual in the officer writing ‘FM has seen’ for several hundred pages of documents coming back from the table of the present Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. No minister can practically see each and every word so minutely as desired by the media or opposition-parties. The very same documents (61 pages) were e-mailed by me earlier to about 700-800 journalists, but were not noticed by any reporter except one. If reporters are not expected to read each and every word or page of important mail sent to them, then it is unfair , and unnecessary, to target Pranab Mukherjee on a non-issue. But that is no reason for the Prime Minister, instead of making his spokesmen react strongly to counter the irresponsible behavior of opposition parties, to toy with the idea of diluting the RTI Act as a remedy. On October 13, 2011, a day before the RTI conference, correspondence between the PM and former Telecom Minister A. Raja in 2007 on the 2G Spectrum scam, revealed through a RTI petition, drew attention of even the Supreme Court. If the RTI Act had been diluted, perhaps such correspondence and big scams like the 2G and the Commonwealth Games 2010 would have never been exposed. Likewise, file notings has been instrumental in exposing the irregular appointment of P.J. Thomas as Chief Vigilance Commissioner, who was subsequently removed by the Supreme Court. Union Ministers like Veerappa Moily and Salman Khurshid, incidentally both being ministerial members of the joint drafting committee for the Lokpal Bill, have caused major embarrassment to the Union Government, first on the issue of the Lokpal Bill, and now for talking about diluting the RTI Act. What does our government want? Should guilty not be punished? Should scams be allowed to happen? Should truth not be allowed to prevail? A Public Information Officer told me in confidence that a senior Union Minister changed his decision when one of my RTI applications reached his department. The RTI Act in its bold form has been instrumental both in exposing earlier scams, and more importantly, in putting lids on future scams. The author is a well-known RTI activist |
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Authors, media personalities, musicians, other celebrities as well as ordinary readers have come together to stop the shutting down of these well-loved institutions, an unfortunate “fall out” of the cutting of local government budgets. And here I am not talking about the large and well funded British Library in London –but the small, neighbourhood libraries, which can often provide safe haven and a quiet space to those who live in crowded homes.
These libraries have offered a special egalitarian place in the UK, lending more than books, as they are also where people go for information about their community, with a usually well-informed librarian and a well stocked notice board. These are not unimportant items to lose from the landscape.Yet, as the “library” protests continue with demonstrations, sit-ins, and even legal battles—-it is obvious that the protestors will have to fight on, perhaps into the New Year… There are, apparently, hundreds of libraries all over the country which are facing eminent extinction —-and this can only be a tragic outcome. Those of us who have used libraries know that these institutions not only give children and adults a chance to enjoy a good book —-they also lead to a marked improvement in our reading skills. According to a recent survey, the National Literary Trust (UK) has concluded that among children between the ages of eight and sixteen –two thirds of those who use a library regularly have reading levels above those who don’t. This in itself is a huge plus point : and there are other advantages as well. In an interview , Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust even pointed out that “In the UK today, one in six people struggles to read, write and communicate, which can affect their health, confidence and employability.” Naturally if our reading skills improved so would our overall performance, and our lifestyle. Most of us have downgraded the importance of books in our lives —-quite forgetting how much pleasure and knowledge we get out of them. The resistance However, not everyone is ready or willing to succumb to the pressure of shutting down their neighbourhood library. Among these are the valiant supporters of the Kensal Rise Library in London which was opened by Mark Twain in 1900. And it is shameful that one century later, it might be rather unceremoniously closed . But its closure will also affect the Asian community in the area as it has very good Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu sections. Nonetheless a bunch of determined readers and authors have got together to fight the Brent Council, which is trying to board up the library following court’s orders. So for the past two weeks people have started a round-the-clock vigil. Even in the cold and the rain –fortified by coffee, hot drinks and sometimes Cuban rum –protestors have been turning up, sitting on the doorstep, and even putting together a pop-up library, in defiance. Basically, the pop-up library comprises of books in cartons arranged around the periphery of the library wall. The books are all donated by supporters and people can borrow them. It has been a unique and very successful form of protest. Maggie Gee, an author who is also spearheading the protest, describes how the protestors managed to survive the rain and the cold thanks to the community spirit “… The sit-in became more comfortable - armchairs arrived, someone donated a plastic gazebo, and people began to show amazing generosity - chefs brought stews in the evening and cooked breakfast in the morning, there was always coffee and sometimes Cuban rum, a one-man tent was put up for the night guard, and there was a constant coming and going of children and teenagers, as well as an armchair presence of older people - some reading, some, like me, working on novels! Now the pop-up library is running 9-5pm seven days a week.” Other authors who have also been fund raising for the court case include Zadie Smith and Phillip Pullman as well as Jacqueline Smith. As volunteers sold mugs, T-shirts , posters and even CDs —-a fund of 30,000 pounds was raised to fight the court case. Even though the judgment has gone against the protestors—they have now won the right to appeal. All they are saying is that they do not even want the government to fund the library anymore, they are willing to find the money and run the library themselves as part of the ‘Big Society” concept that David Cameron’s Conservative party had mooted. Even though that idea, too, has been rejected by Brent Council which runs the library—-this determined gang of library-liberationists has not given up. Possibly because this library-fight has become a larger symbol. As Maggie Gee says “If libraries are allowed to close without a fight, how long will that other service that was once the envy of the world, the NHS (National Health Service) survive? Oh, and the books. The stories that help us understand each other, the non-fiction that gives us the tools to survive in the world, the picture-books that help toddlers make sense of themselves – are they to be only for rich people now? Brent’s Labour Council should hang their heads in shame.” One can only hope that they will win their battle soon –and not have to sit in the winter snow with their pop-up library. Though somehow I think if these enthusiastic book-lovers have to do it, they will! |
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On the record by
Gillian
Wright, Delhi based journalist and author, studied both Hindi and Urdu at London University. She has worked with Sir Mark Tully for over thirty years across South Asia, which developed in her love for the culture of the region. Her travels across the length and breadth of the country resulted in several books like ‘An Introduction to the Hill Stations of India, Sri Lanka’ and ‘Birds of the Indian Sub Continent’. She has translated a few novels and short stories from Hindi into English, including Shrilal Shukla’s celebrated novel ‘Raag Darbari’, Dr Rahi Masum Raza’s novel ‘Aadha Gaon’ and Bhishma Sahni’s selected short stories titled ‘Middle India’. She talks about the challenges of translating culture-specific narratives for a wider readership, which in English, one would assume to be European, the challenges of translating a satire like ‘Raag Darbari’ and recalls her association with Shrilal Shukla, who died this week. What drew you to the study of Hindi and Urdu languages? I used to work for Hindi and Urdu services of the BBC, where I came in touch with people working for these services and I developed an interest in the languages. Then I worked with Mark Tully for about thirty years in India and covered all kinds of issues: political, economic, social, wild life etc. This made me understand the Indian culture; through its art, languages and literature- would certainly be the best way to know a culture, so, I read Hindi and Urdu literature. I also wrote travel books on India. Did you read a lot of Hindi authors? Which authors did you find most engaging, and why? I read selectively because I was also doing many other things. I began with Premchand and read Bhagwati Charan Verma, Nirmal Verma, Fanishwar Nath Renu and a few others. I translated Dr Rahi Masum Raza’s ‘Aadha Gaon’ into English and a few short stories selected by Bhishm Sahni himself. All these translations were published by Penguin Books. I also read poetry in Urdu . Were you ever tempted to translate Urdu poetry? No, because I think to translate poetry you have to be a poet yourself, but I am not a poet, I can translate only prose. Selecting ‘Raag Darbari’ to translate into English must have been a very difficult decision. Basically when I read ‘Raag Darbari’, I realised I had never read a book like that in English; I just laughed and laughed. Those days I was covering UP and I could absolutely relate to the characters and situations in the book. I went to David Davidar of Penguin and told him that I wanted to translate the novel into English. By that time the book had already been translated into 13 other Indian languages and the TV serial had added to its popularity. Did you meet Shrilal Shukla before taking up the translation, or during the process? What were his inputs? Yes, I went to meet him. He agreed that it should be translated into English and he didn’t want to do it himself. Whenever I had to do a large chunk of work, I would board Lucknow Mail, take a tempo to Indira Nagar, where he lived, and spend the afternoon with him discussing his work. He would just look at the howlers and help me with those. What are the impressions you carry of the person Shrilal Shukla? What stands out about his personality was that he was unique, so well read and with a quiet sense of humour. He couldn’t stand nonsense, of any sort, and he would show it with just one sentence- that would be sharp and subtle. If a person is known by the way his family treats him, his children were adorable and how they looked after him was admirable. He had lost his wife, his sons and daughter made a very loving and warm family. Which parts of the book were most challenging to translate ? Did you think translating humour into an alien language would be possible? Probably the parts with Sanskritised Hindi and at times I felt at a loss with the dialogues. So, I played around it. But, it wasn’t difficult, the dialogues were in colloquial Hindi, they just raced around. To translate humour you have to have a similar sense of humour, else you cannot translate it. And who are your favourite characters? Oh! Badri Pahalwan, I like the wily old Vaidyaji and in fact, all of them! If Penguin was not publishing translations, do you think these masterpieces of Hindi literature would remain confined to just Hindi readers? Penguin led the way, but now many other publishing houses have joined. The field of translation is opening up, it is becoming a mainstream publishing activity. Is it lucrative enough, and do we get quality translations? It may not get you as much money as a banking job would, but you also do it for the love of it. Basically publishing industry is market driven, so now you come across more and more quality translations. Lot of translations are done by academics and their translations carry quality. |
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PROFILE BY Mehra is clearly impressed with Milkha Singh’s dogged determination. He came to India in his teens as a refugee, having lost his parents in rioting during the Partition. Thrice denied a place in the army, he persevered and then took full advantage of his strong pair of legs. He trained so hard that his sweat would fill up a bucket at times, he recalls. With Prasoon Joshi writing the story, screenplay and dialogue, Mehra’s tribute to the ‘undying spirit’ of Milkha Singh has already created a buzz and expectations are high. Mehra is known for films like ‘Aks’ ( 2001), Rang de Basanti ( 2006) and Delhi-6 ( 2009). He has also produced the comedy ‘Teen they Bhai’. 1963-born Mehra has strong views on cinema. Indian cinema is largely escapist , he says, because Indians believe more in words than in action. He does not exclude himself and says that hit films may not be good films and that good films need not always be popular. Now 47, Mehra grew up in a lower middle-class family in Delhi. His father worked in a city hotel. Mehra was a state-level swimmer, which got him admission in the much sought after Sri Ram College of Commerce. His first day in college, he recalls, left an indelible mark on his psyche. Students were asked to introduce themselves— and they read out their school leaving marks—to the professor. While everyone had over 90 per cent , Mehra had just 56.6 per cent. The professor looked shocked and declared it was because of students like him that the reputation of the college had declined. Mehra never attended that Professor’s class again. While his class mates joined management institutes and big companies after completing their college education, Mehra started his career as a salesman for Eureka Forbes, selling vacuum cleaners in Delhi. He was paid a salary of Rs. 415 a month. But while other salesmen went from house-to-house convincing housewives of the benefits of their vacuum cleaners, Mehra approached hospitals and airports. He was able to sell 20 to 30 machines in one go. He then shifted to Bombay and took up advertising, shooting television ads for Indian companies and multinational giants then entering India. It was in the late nineties when Mehra finally made his debut on big screen. The adventure of making a feature film was too hard to resist. Even though his first feature film, Aks was a disaster, it enabled Mehra to come out of advertising and pushed him towards film making. He went on an overdrive, reading books on screen play and studying films of masters such as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa and Indian greats like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt and V.
Shantaram. |
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