Ajit Ranade; Mumbai Mirror; Saturday, April 09, 2011,
Many faces in Azad Maidan and Jantar Mantar are battle-weary from the decade-old battle for RTI, which they won
They call this the second war of independence. This time it is not war for independence from colonial rulers, but from the cancer of corruption. Corruption has probably always existed, but was not so visible, blatant and widespread.
The reason it has become visible is thanks largely to a sunshine law that was passed during the tenure of UPA-1. That law called the Right to Information, passed in 2005, itself was the culmination of many years of struggle by RTI activists for more than a decade prior to 2005.
That battle for passage of an RTI Act, was fought in many states, with mini victories in states like Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan and even Maharashtra. But each state’s version of RTI had some inadequacy, and there was no all-India law.
Eventually all the various state laws were amalgamated into one, and a national RTI was passed and became operational in October 2005. It was historic, because for the first time it gave the same access to all files, to an ordinary citizen as to VIPs like Members of Parliament.
Anyone could summon a file from any government department, just like the privilege political bosses had always enjoyed. Of course, you couldn’t ask for it at a moment’s notice, nor could you ask a file at midnight, like politicians! But every citizen, nevertheless, had now this same right.
This right could no longer be denied behind the smokescreen of Official Secrets Act (an old British legacy). If there was a delay, then individual government officers were to be penalised, and the penalty would be cut from their salaries.
Most of the warriors who fought for RTI are the same ones hanging out at Azad Maidan or Jantar Mantar. Their General Hazare is 15 years older, but is still looking fit enough for another battle. His many lieutenants have now been joined by a generation which was mostly crawling babies, when the old RTI battle bugle was blown, in the early 1990s.
Thus this new younger brigade is summoned by tweets and facebooks, and probably has no background on the previous Panipat battle (for RTI).
The importance of RTI cannot be over-emphasised. In its seven-year existence, it has shone the light on many ugly worms of corruption. Many warriors have been killed for using RTI.
It is because of RTI that Adarsh scam came to light, and a Chief Minister lost his job. In fact the present CM of Maharashtra is on record of having said that he is quite optimistic about the impact of RTI and uncovering of so many scams.
What he meant was that when bureaucrats and politicians in the past made file notings, or took decisions, they never thought that their signature and comment trail would be made public. Hence many decisions were reckless, some were downright corrupt.
But thanks to RTI, each decision, each file noting would now be under thorough scrutiny, and hence less likely to be arbitrary or counter to public interest.
The present (second Panipat battle for Hazare and his troops), is the logical next step after RTI. If RTI exposes corrupt practices and people, how do we hold them accountable? Many people in government (politicians and bureaucrats) have a generalised immunity from prosecution.
To prosecute a government official, you need the permission of the government itself, even if there is ample evidence!
The Lokpal Bill that ex-RTI warriors are fighting for, may also sound as abstract and abstruse as the proposed RTI Bill sounded back in 1995, or 2005. It will have naysayers and skeptics. But the impact of a constitutionally empowered ombudsman or Lokpal would be tremendous. RTI exposes corruption, and now the institution of Lokpal with be the necessary chemotherapy.
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