Free Press Journal: Mumbai: Tuesday,
October 25, 2016.
With the
spurt of attacks on the RTI activists for exposing the corrupt activities, fear
looms around the activists who seek information and bring to light the corrupt
officials. In this backdrop, Shailesh Gandhi, RTI activist and Former
Information Commissioner with the Central Information Commission, New Delhi,
talks about the need for better governance and to stop diluting the Right To Information
(RTI) Act of 2005. Edited excerpts:
Q) There
has been a hue and cry over the need to provide protection to the RTI activists
after a stream of attacks on several RTI activists in India. Do you think that
providing protection to RTI activists is the need of the hour?
Firstly,
providing protection to RTI activists is not possible with the current law and
order status in India. According to me, RTI activists are just one class of
people and it does not need special protection from the police. When it comes
to RTI users and other activists, protection must be provided to them on the
basis of threat perception. For example, someone putting a Facebook post which
affects the sentiments of a large number of people must get a proper police
protection. Same should be applied to RTI activists who receive threat calls
from powerful people for exposing their corrupt activities.
Q) Several
organisation and societies have been mulling over the need to amend the RTI act
of 2005. Do you think the amendments in the current Act will make a huge
difference pertaining to RTI users?
At present,
we need better governance and speedy investigation to book the culprits for the
murder of RTI activists. For example, RTI activist Satish Shetty was killed for
exposing land scams in Maharashtra in 2010. Police were investigating the case
for four years and couldn’t receive any concrete evidence thereafter. It is
important that we improve our investigation and judicial process. Our RTI Act
ranks fifth in the world and it is known to be one of the tremendous force to
challenge the corrupt activities. It is important that the Act is protected
against dilution by making amendments in it and rather be interpreted properly.
Q) Why do
you think that RTI activists are being targeted?
The Supreme
Court (SC), in CBSE Versus Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011) case, stated, “The RTI
Act should not be allowed to be misused or abused to become a tool to obstruct
the national development and integration.” Due to the statement by SC and
several other bureaucrats expressing their displeasure towards RTI, a negative
identity has been created by the RTI activists, which is also a result of them
being targeted. RTI Activists challenge
the powerful people and works against them which is one of the reasons for them
being targeted.
Q) There
are also several RTI activists seeking information towards the implementation
of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme
who are being targeted? Why do you think it is happening?
MNREGA scheme
serves the poor people of several benefits. Several activists have exposed the
corruption in implementing the scheme and have brought to light the corrupt
activities in the village system. The corrupt officials running the scheme,
whom the RTI activists expose, are uneducated and it eventually hit backs hard
on them.
Q) Lastly,
how can we protect RTI users and make use of the RTI Act of 2005?
If there are
amendments made under the RTI act, it would eventually put restrictions on the
freedom of expression. We must not allow curtailment to our freedom of
expression. The act has had an impact on our present government system. Care
must be taken that there are no vested interests to deprecate users and RTI
activists and thereby protect the Article of 19 (1) (A) of the constitution of
India which guarantees the freedom of expression.
.JPG)
.JPG)
